Miller, Gary_ "Angelica"

Artists Statement 
Colorful mixed-media work in which I explore a contemporary, exaggerated, and dynamic approach to portraiture.  These mini portraits have allowed me to explore my collection of assortments of textiles, embroideries, and trims that I have collected over many years and used here to represent hair.

I have always combined various media with oil painting techniques and enjoy seeing how light reflects off each piece.

Biography 

Born and raised in London, Gary Miller was taught at a young age to repurpose and reuse materials to give them a second life. As a child, Gary’s grandmother, who was a seamstress in a couturier, taught Gary about fabrics, pattern cutting, hand sewing, and embroidery techniques, which he practiced endlessly wanting to learn her craft.

Gary attended various art and design schools from the age of 16 – 23 and has since then continued to draw as much as possible. During these formative years, Gary would frequent the museums of London the Tate Britain as it is now known, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Saatchi Collection where he was especially drawn to the artists who worked in unconventional materials, such as Damion Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and Gary Hume.

In 1995, Gary Miller earned a BFA degree in Fashion Design from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication and pursued a career in that industry. He continued to take self-guided life drawing classes, where he experimented with various pens, inks, pastels, paints, and collages, again making use of what was around him.

In 2019, Gary graduated in Fall 2019 with an MFA in Fine Art and painting from San Francisco's Academy of Art University, where he developed a new series of contemporary mixed media portraits. In each of these works, Gary combines references from life model photographic imagery, his lifelong passion for fabric and textiles along with his raw approach to painting.