Š 2013 Ali Miller All rights reserved Catalog design and images by Ali Miller
More work and information about the artist can be found at: www.alimillerstudios.com
BAD HABITS
I am a dreamer who often fantasizes about how the world around me could be more vibrant, rich, and entertaining. I use paint to explore layered psychological states by staging specific scenarios derived from visions that have flashed through my mind. My visions are particularly saturated with notions of the ideal as presented in fairytales, fashion and architecture. A popular philosophy in modern cognitive psychology states that the feelings we experience in life are a direct result of a complex chain of flash thoughts. During times of panic, fear, and excitement neurotransmitters fire so quickly that emotions become complex, confusing, and heightened. It can be challenging to distinguish between rational and irrational thoughts. I am fascinated by this melding of conscious reality and nightmarish or fantastic imaginings. My overwhelming need to manipulate the real manifests itself in my artistic process. I paint the relics of my fantasies. My work is informed by elaborate theatrical costumes and scenery. I use the panel as a way to flatten complex melodramas into single scenarios that can be analyzed and interpreted. The montage-like compositions, energetic rhythms and dream logic in my work calls to mind popular music videos. My process involves working from photographs of live models, often including myself, natural or staged environments, and physical abstract sculptures. These sculptures are born out of the actual scraps of my life, including fabric, lace, brightly colored string, styrofoam, furniture, and tangled bits of broken accessories. I occasionally integrate my sculptural materials into my paintings, amplifying the notion of uncertainty and illusion. The formal elements and techniques that I employ are directed by the same impetus as the subject matter. My tendency to ruminate materializes in painstaking depictions of textures, patterns, miniature designs, and fastidious detail, all of which are executed with tiny paintbrushes. In contrast, my desire to revel in pleasurable and emotive fantasy causes me to focus on more liberal techniques--thick strokes with larger brushes. This creates tension within my work that is intensified by a desire for closure that this dichotomy renders impossible. The result of my process is a space more ornate and more beautiful than that which I inhabit; it is at once the stage for the fantastical expectations of my life and the contemplative space for understanding the disparity between the real and its relation to the imagined. Ali Miller
A Spectacle for Myself, Oil on panel, 48"X36," 2010
"When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection." -Agnes Martin
Fly on the Wall, Oil on panel, 48"X36," 2011
Closure Sketch, Oil pastel on paper, 22"x15," 2011
Closure, Oil on panel, 48"X60," 2011
"...Vision is always ahead of execution, knowledge of materials is your contact with reality, and uncertainty is a virtue."- David Bayles and Ted Orland
Watch Yourself, Oil on panel, 32"X24," 2013
It Happens Under the Falls, Oil on panel, 36"X24," 2013
To Help You See...
To Help You See (Sketch 1), Graphite on paper, 9"X12," 2011
To Help You See (Sketch 2), Graphite on paper, 9"X12," 2011
To Help You See: Oil Sketch, Oil on paper, 18"x24," 2012
To Help You See: Test 1 Oil on digital copy of painting in progress "Water as blanket?"
To Help You See: Test 2 Oil on digital copy of painting in progress "Let's just chop it up..."
To Help You See: Test 3 Oil on digital copy of painting in progress "Franz Kline took over"
To Help You See: Test 4 Oil on digital copy of painting in progress "Its's a pool. We have a winner"
To Help You See, Oil on panel, 72"x96," 2012
Installataion View of Bad Habits Exhibition at the Meyerhoff Gallery
Just Leave It, Oil on panel, 24"x24," 2012
It Can't All Fit, Oil on panel, 12"x12," 2012
Almost Like Diseny, Oil on panel, 18"x24," 2013
Pour It On, Oil on panel, 9"x12," 2013
My Other Half, Oil on panel, 6"x8," 2013
The Fountain, Oil on panel, 11"x8," 2010
We Have Your Back, Oil and paper on panel, 14"x11", 2013
Special, Oil quartz and amethyst on panel, 8"x10," 2013
This Moment Needs Music, Oil and amethyst on panel, 10"x10," 2013
The Schlump, Oil, quartz, and amethyst on panel, 36"x48," 2013
Blurring the Line...
Everything is Always Pinker on the Other Side, Oil and clay on panel and wall, 12"x12," 2012
Good Morning Baltimore., Oil and clay on panel and wall, 20"x36," 2012
The Spare Room, Oil, quartz, and clay on panel and wall, 20"x36," 2012
New Climate, Oil on panel and wall, 12"x16," 2012
Evening at the Pool, Oil on panel and wall, 40"x30," 2012
Strata Mix-up, Oil, graphite, and wire on panel and wall, 16"x33," 2011
The Falls, Oil and mixed-media on panel and wall, 36"x24," 2011
The Michaelangelo's...
Crackle and Chew, Oil on panel, 18"X26," 2011
The Collaboration (with Laini Nemett), Oil on panel, 24"X26," 2011
Self-Sufficient, Oil, acrylic, and quartzon panel, 11"X14," 2013
It Could Almost Work, Oil and mixed media on panel, 20"x16," 2012
Amphitheater, Oil on panel, 24"x6," 2012
Don't Rain On My Parade, Oil on paper, 22"x30," 2012
There's Always a Cloud, Goauche on paper, 11"x11," 2011
The Storm Pool, Gouache on paper, 11"x7," 2011
The Winner, Graphite on paper, 9"x11," 2010
It Just Keeps Going, Graphite on paper, 18"x34," 2012
Ali Miller is a narrative painter whose recent work explores such themes as the fear of the unknown and the phenomenon of perfection. Ali was raised in New York and received her BFA from Alfred University. After graduation, Ali attended the Chautauqua Art Institute for two summers. She continued to build on her technique by enrolling in classical painting courses at the New York Academy of Art. In 2010, Ali was accepted to the Maryland Institute College of Art as the recipient of the Hoffberger Fellowship Award, where she received her MFA. Ali has exhibited in New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Florence, Italy. She recently received the Best in Show Prize at the Bethesda Painting Awards and is now represented by Connersmith Gallery in Washington DC. Ali's work can also be found in the private collections of the Bendit and Palash families in New York City and the Rubenstein Collection in Boca Raton, Florida
Born 1985, Long Island, NY Education 2012 Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting MFA in Painting 2008 Alfred University BFA, Concentration: Painting and Printmaking, Art Education Additional Education 2010 Summer, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY 2007 Spring, Santa Reparata International School of Art, Florence, Italy Solo Exhibitions 2013 (e)merge Art Fair, Connersmith Gallery, Washington D.C 2012 Bad Habits, Meyerhoff Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2008 Hideout: BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Harder Hall, Alfred, NY Selected Exhibitions 2013 New Paintings, Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto,, Canada Maryland Art At College Park, Juried by Dan Mills, The Art Gallery, College Park, MD Dave Bown Projects-6th Semiannual Competition (Curators: Marisa Pascucci, RetoThuring, Adelina Vlas) Caged In: DC Painters Explore the Aesthetic Influences of John Cage, Gallery 102 at GW, Washington DC 2012 Conventional Wisdom, Delicious Spectacle, Washington D.C. The Relationship, e(merge) Art Fair, Washington D.C. Beyond the Frame: After Lucio Fontana, Washington D.C. The XL-XS Show, The Art Gallery, College Park, MD The Academy Show, Conner Contemporary, Washington D.C. Bethesda Painting Awards, Gallery B, Bethesda MD 2011 Artists Wanted: The Power of Self, Online ArtistaDay.com, Online Art Kudos: International Juried Art Competition and Exhibition, Online Untitled: A Mid-Atlantic MFA Exhibition, Industry Gallery, Washington, D.C. Hoffberger School of Painting, Fox 3 Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Align, Gallery 500, Baltimore, MD First Year Show, Pinkard Gallery, Baltimore MD Selected Exhibitions (Continued) 2010 New Work By Emerging Artists, Art that Matters, Oyster Bay, NY Hoffberger School of Painting, Fox 3 Gallery, Baltimore MD Juried Fine Arts Exhibition: Joan Young, Mills Pond House, Saint James, NY Chautauqua: A Continuum of Creativity, Denisie Bibro Fine Arts, New York, NY 2009 Chautauqua School of Art Annual Student Exhibition, Logan Gallery, Chautauqua, NY Summer in the City , Kathleen Cullen FIne Arts Gallery, New York, NY 2008 Chautauqua School of Art Annual Student Exhibition, Logan Gallery, Chautauqua, NY In Foreign Space, Women's Leadership Center, Alfred, NY Hideout: BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Harder Hall, Alfred, NY 2007 Drawing Conclusions and Painting Pictures, Harder Hall, Alfred NY 2004 Long Island's Best: Young Artists at Heckscher, Herscher Museum of Art, Hunting ton, NY Private and Public Collections Rubenstein Collection, Washington, DC Bendit Family Collection, New York, NY Palash Family Collection, New York, NY Alfred University Public, Collection, Alfred, NY Awards and Scholarships 2013 Juror's Pick, Maryland Art At College Park, Juried by Dan Mills Artist's Grant, The Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont Dave Bown Projects Finalist 2012 Best in Show Bethesda Painting Awards Finalist for Toby Devan's Scholarship 2011 Finalist in the Power of Self Competition 2012 Hoffberger Foundation Fellowship Award, Maryland Institute College of Art 2008-2009 Merit Scholarship to he Chautauqua Art Institute 2008 Alfred University Senior Painting Award 2006 Selected for the Alfred University State Funding Exhibition 2004-20008 Dean's List, Alfred University 2004 Dean's Scholarship, Alfred University