Happy Ending: major solo exhibition by American artist Greg Miller at Scream London

LONDON.- Scream presents a major solo exhibition of new large-scale works by American artist Greg Miller. Although Miller has been exhibiting regularly and to critical acclaim in the USA since 1975, Happy Ending is surprisingly his first solo exhibition in the UK. Miller uses collage and paint to create large-scale works, which explore the urban streetscape within a broader historical context. His monumental paintings and eye-catching installations serve to capture for prosperity the most intangible aspects of American culture.

His pop art-inspired painting Phantom Lady was a highlight of the Bonhams Urban Art Sale in January 2011, and he has donated work to the Macmillan de’Longhi Art Auction at Bonhams on 27th September. Miller will also exhibit on the Scream stand at the Moniker Art Fair this October. American art critic Peter Frank commented in an essay on Miller’s new series Happy Ending: “Greg Miller’s art has never been so raw or inelegant. There has always been a coarseness to Miller’s aesthetic, one that allows in rough edges and textures, not to mention images vaguely troubling in their sinister passivity. But in this series Miller brings to the fore the social and aesthetic anxieties that have agitated deep below his once-still waters.”

Born in Sacramento in 1951, Greg Miller has exhibited widely in his native USA and draws on his Californian roots and American popular culture in his practice. Exhibitions in 2010 include; Art Miami, Art Basel, Miami, FL; Solo exhibition at Campton Gallery, New York; Group exhibition ‘Under the Influence of Fashion and Finance’, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA; San Fransico Fine Art Fair, Fort Mason, California; LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA.

Miller studied extensively in California at San Jose State University, UCLA Graduate School and the San Francisco Art Institute, before embarking on an illustrious career spanning more than three decades. His work can be found in international museum and corporate collections including; the Saatchi Collection, Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, San Jose Museum of Art, Pixar Animation Studios, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and FAGO Foundation. Greg’s paintings are also sought after by high profile individual collectors including; Jessica Alba, Toby Maguire, Sharon Stone and John Paul & Eloise DeJoria.

Awards include the 1981 National Endowment for the Arts: Publication Grant; 1980 National Endowment for the Arts: Exhibition Grant; and 1978 National Endowment for the Arts: Publication Grant. A volume of Miller’s writings, photography and paintings was published in 2010 in The Get Go, and he has shared his knowledge and skills as a Professor at the Claremont Graduate School of Art, Laguna College of Art & Design. Signs of the Nearly Actual, the first comprehensive monograph dedicated to Miller’s oeuvre, was published in 2008. Miller divides his time between Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California.

“In his new work…Greg Miller brings the pictorial poise of Pop to the eloquent fury of street art, effecting a marriage – or at least a torrid affair – between two hot items. One item is hot today, the other has been hot for half a century, but in Miller’s hands there is no generation gap, only a spiritual union – one that generates a sky, or at least wall, full of sparks.” Peter Frank.