[ about the artist ]

photo by Francesca Miller (age 3)

Kenneth B. Miller
PO Box 101
Newtown, PA 18940-0101 USA

Statement - Exhibitions
Press - Projects - Education

Statement

For me, art has been an evolving process of learning. As a child I would spend hours working on elaborate drawings on posterboard, creating vast and impossible cities and landscapes. When I was 12, I was given my first computer. It was rather primitive by today’s standards, but eventually I taught myself how to program it and wrote a simple graphics program to create, edit and save drawings.

When I attended college at Penn State University, I studied graphic design, photography, art history, and computer animation, in addition to learning how to draw and paint with oils. Each new technique was a new tool for creating art, and the main focus of my work was to create art that was not constrained by technical limitations.

In my earlier shaped paintings, I attempted to create canvases which convey a sense of fragmented realism in order to show an interior space or a landscape in a way which goes beyond conventional organization of perspective, linear design and static time.

atement

After a period of painting more conventional oil paintings, I started to work with incorporating collage into acrylic paintings to add new textures and found elements, as well as enlarged photographs. Photography had always been a vital element in my shaped canvas work, as I would use photos as reference points. I found that incorporating the actual photos into the painted pieces added a gritty sense of realism to the pieces that couldn't be accomplished with painting alone. Most recently, I started working more with the photos as the main basis for the pieces. The rigid linear structure of the collaged photographs acts as a counterpoint to my organic and broad-brushed painting style.

In 2005 I started to experiment with a more purely collage-oriented approach, using figures from old coloring books and consumer products in my work, and incorporating more humor into the images. I've found these collages to be great fun to make and many people really respond well to them.

me

In 1990, I discovered something called "mail art" which is an international network of artists who exchange work by mail. I have participated in scores of exhibitions (some of which are listed below), and ran my own compilation project called "Exquisite Square." The point of mail art is that anyone is allowed to participate, and that there is no boundary between artist and audience. I also produce a publication called Shouting at the Postman, which I write and design both in print and on the web.

I’ve been exhibiting my paintings since 1991, including shows at Penn State University, art galleries, Borders books, the Philadelphia Public Library, the Art Institute of Philadelphia and assorted coffee shops. I was a committee member of the Artists Guild of the Delaware Valley for much of 2000, and won several awards in their exhibitions. I was inducted into the Highwire Gallery in March 2004.

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Solo Exhibitions

Nov. 2005: Recessive Traits, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia

Sept. 2004: Assembly, two person show with Lisa Spera at Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia

July 2000: Gravity, Borders Book Shop, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia

Oct. 1999: Explorations, Borders Book Shop, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia

June 1999: The Majestic Elephant, The Bean Scene Café, Philadelphia

Feb. 1999: Tangents, The Bean Scene Café, Philadelphia

April 1998: Passing Fragments, The Bean Scene Cafe, Philadelphia

Solo Exhibitions (continued)

June 1994: Greed and Loneliness/Peace and Happiness, The Daily Grind, State College, Pennsylvania

Mar. 1993: The Busted Mirror, The Daily Grind, State College, Pennsylvania

Aug. 1992: Severed Moments, Pattee Library at Pennsylvania State University, University Park

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Selected Group Exhibitions (continued)

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Selected Group Exhibitions (continued)

Aug. 2000: Philadelphia: People and Places, The Art Institute, Philadelphia

Mar. 2000: A Tribute to Women & Women Artists, Free Library of Philadelphia, Main Branch

1999 & 2000: Several collages shown in conjunction with Ray Johnson: Correspondences at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio

Dec. 1999: Arte Postal: Hacia el Nuevo Milenio, Museo de Filatela de Oaxaca, Mexico

June 1999: Omaha Beach, Saint-Lô, France

May 1999: H20, May-Irene Aasen, Oslo, Norway

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Selected Group Exhibitions (continued)

Sept. 1998: The Next Word, Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase, New York

July 1998: The Renegade Library, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Canada

Sept. 1997: Working in a Coal Mine, Winterslag, Genk, Belguim

Dec. 1995: Artist's Stamp, Biblioteca Comunale di Ballao, Italy

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Projects & Work

2004: Designed new website for Highwire Gallery

2004: Inducted as member of Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia

2000: Committee Member, Artists Guild of Delaware Valley

1998-Present: Cult Figure of the Year, is an annual interactive art project I created and maintain.

1997-2000: Exquisite Square, an interactive art project I created, had over 200 participants from 27 countries.

1996: Produced oil paintings for the covers of Psychiatric Annals and The Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services magazines on a freelance basis

1995-Present: Employed as a graphic designer in Trenton, New Jersey

Projects & Work (continued)

1995: Began writing and producing Shouting at the Postman, an eclectic publication of art, fiction and nonfiction. It is currently published simultaneously on paper and on the Internet

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Education

1991: The Pennsylvania State University, Bachelor of Arts in Drawing & Painting with a minor in Art History

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