VISUAL ARTS

From Mundane Foundations to Monsters by Michael Miller explores our interior and exterior worlds. Subtitled An Homage to the Home Depot, this solo exhibit uses diverse media to challenge our assumptions about what we see and who we are. From Mundane Foundations to Monsters presents two distinct bodies of work. In a series of framed pieces, Miller uses deceptively simple lines to draw imaginary creatures over masses of color. With a whimsy reminiscent of Philip Guston, Miller depicts “the little monsters in all of us,” at once needy and playful. Their cartoon-like faces stare out as from a mirror, reflecting moods and mania back to the viewer. Our inner monsters, says Miller, are “the untidy parts of the human condition.” The larger portion of From Mundane Foundations to Monsters is Miller’s Homage to the Home Depot. Here Miller uses found objects: wood from dismantled mills, scrap metal from abandoned lots in Lowell, and store-bought hardware. He combines these into canvas-like structures, then layers them with varnish, oil, and acrylic, alternately building up and tearing down the surface. “I revise, rearrange, over-paint, and subtract, over and over,” Miller explains. The resulting abstractions are unified, serene and powerful. Influences from Robert Motherwell to Huma Bhabha resonate in the work. For Miller, painting and sculpture exist on a continuum. “I conceive an idea,” says Miller, “then work to put that conception into form.” He creates new entities from materials others have overlooked or discarded. In the process, he translates personal vision into shared reflection. Miller trained in photography and art at Palomar College in CA. He also studied art at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, TX. He currently lives in Stow, MA. From Mundane Foundations to Monsters: An Homage to the Home Depot shows in the Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Avenue, second floor of the A-Mill, from June 2 - 27, 2010. There will be a reception for the artist Friday, June 4 from 6-9PM. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 4:30pm. For information about the exhibit, visit theloadingdockgallery.com or call Maxine Farkas at 978-349-8069.