14 Nov 2010

Harland Miller: Butter - Side Down at Galleria Marabini in Bologna

HARLAND MILLER: BUTTER - SIDE DOWN
FROM NOVEMBER AT GALLERIA MARABINI BOLOGNA

Galleria Marabini is delighted to announce 'Butter - Side Down', the first solo show in Italy of the artist and writer Harland Miller.

British Painter Harland Miller is famous for his works based on the dust jackets of old Penguin books, they are painterly reproductions of these iconic classics but with fictitious titles that are specific to the North East where Miller himself grew up. In execution these works reference American Abstract Expressionism and German expressionism, which when combined with his writer's love of text, create a feeling of belonging to a tradition of very English pop art. As such, the resultant work, which hints at the beat up nature of old paperbacks, evokes a wilful sense of nostalgia within which there are equal measures of the humour and tragedy innate in the culture of the north: 'Bridlington - Costal Erosion – It's Not All Bad News; 'Too Cool to Die'; 'The Me I Never Knew' ; 'Plan B, My Story' and 'International Lonely Gal, Mon Histoire'.

Miller achieved critical acclaim with his debut novel, 'Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty', (2000), the story of a kid who travels around Northern England with a David Bowie impersonator. In the same year he published a small novella, 'First I was Afraid, I was Petrified', based on the true story of a female relative with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, discovered when Miller came across a box full of Polaroid images she had taken of the knobs of a cooker. In 2001 Miller began producing the series of paintings based on the dust jackets of Penguin books. Miller was the Writer in Residence at the ICA, London for 2002 and over the course of his residence he programmed a number of events drawing from his experience in literature and fine art, which included a season devoted to the ongoing influence and legacy of Edgar Allen Poe.

ARTIST

Harland Miller was born in Yorkshire in 1964 and lives in London. From 1984 to 1987 he studied at Chelsea College of Art followed by an MA at Chelsea College of Art from 1987 to 1988.

'Recent solo exhibitions include 'I Never Forget What I Can't Remember', Reflex Art Gallery, Amsterdam (2010), 'Don't Let the Bastards Cheer you Up', Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2009), 'Siesta Forever - Come on and Sing My Song', The Fireplace Project, East Hamptons (2007), 'Dear Son, This is one of the last of my few remaining pre marital possessions - look after it won't you, Love Dad', Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (2005), 'To Jean, A Small Memento for a Great Effort, Love Alan', White Cube, London (2002).

Group exhibitions include 'You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil', White Cube, Hoxton Square and Shoreditch Town Hall, London (2008), Royal Academy, London (2007, 2006, 2005), Kunsthalle, Mannheim (2004) and the ICA, London (1996).

For further enquires please contact the Gallery on +39 051 6447482 or  +39 0262086802