SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
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The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Ralph
Miller
UNITED STATES
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“In my works, the physical act of separation and intersecting fluidity symbolizes everyday life as it diverges from the norm.”
“Art is an expression of an artist’s life and times.” - Ralph Miller
Ralph I. Miller is a visual and experiential artist of Nicaraguan heritage. He began painting as a young boy.
Fading Glory, 2021 (96” x 54”) This oil on canvas photoprint captures the fine balance between loveliness and decay as a rose wilts unceremoniously in a kitchen rubbish bin. It is both beauty and grot. Clearly the artist was inspired by Rembrandt. [RM_902]
When seen through the lens of his camera, a world of images and juxtapositions emerge. Having earned a living as a profes-sional photographer in his early years, working with literally tens of thousands of images in his commercial shows, Ralph gained an appreciation and quickness for capturing iconic, moving moments, reflective of the turmoil in our lives and the sim-ple moments that linger in our memories for years to come.
Gel Face, 2021 (96” x 54”) This mixed media piece was inspired by the artist’s actual dental scans. Part self-portrait and part dental record, the whimsical quality is achieved through the layering of UV paint on the magnified radiograph, with colored lighting gels affixed to complete the facial features. [RM_901]
Ralph began his commercial art career designing and building sets and creating special effects for community and corporate theater in Washington D.C., developing and applying sophisticated programming tools and techniques across a variety of plat-forms. He created scores of multi-media extravaganzas for live theatrical performances, music concerts, and scene-setters for film and video productions on the U.S. East and West Coasts, expanding later to Asia Pacific, South America and Europe.
As an early adopter of advanced media, display and sensor technologies, now including VR/XR/AR and AI, Ralph has produced the most challenging and innovative installations.
Ralph has been a member of the award-winning Nintendo of America design team for decades, and has had a hand in the de-sign, production and realization of commissioned media for Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) and Consumer Electron-ics Show (CES) activations. He has produced its most challenging and innovative installations as an early adopter of advanced media, display and sensor technologies, now including VR/XR/AR and AI. Ralph ‘s career highlights include designing and producing Olympics and World’s Fair Pavilions and serving as Senior Creative Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering on pro-jects at Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneyland Theme Parks.
Having earned a living as a professional photographer in his early years, working with literally tens of thou-sands of images in his commercial shows, Ralph gained an appreciation and quickness for capturing iconic, moving moments, reflective of the turmoil in our lives and the simple moments that linger in our memories for years to come.
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Ralph is influenced by 20th century Dominican Republic artists, Peña-Defilló (“Papo”), Perez, and Cruz. Growing up in Managua, Santo Domingo and Miami, Ralph embraced a Caribbean color scheme of bright blues, yellows, greens and reds. Ralph explores a wide range of media and styles—from fine woodcuts to large projection mapping and immersive installations. In his work, he has also investigated the dark side of space and time, specifically through Haitian art.
The Dentist Chair, 2020 (96” x 54” each, x2) This work is an example of my photo-manipulated work inspired by a few harrowing moments in a dentist chair. The topsy, turvy world of dental torture is captured in the effects of nitrous oxide through the use of UV paint. [RM_432,433]
“The core message of my works is that human activity creates a complicated tapestry of emotions and mes-saging through overlapping imagery across multiple and often-repeated expressions—at times contrasting, at times eerily consistent—chaotic slices of life, gaining meaning through their juxtapositions, repetitions and temporality.”
Shanghai Subway Rush Hour, 2021 (54 x 54) This original photograph, embellished in UV , depicts the physical convergence of bodies socially distancing yet engaged with electronic devices, commuting in Shanghai, China—connected by their sameness of action, deep into their glowing screens. [RM_574]
His work, Dentist Chair with Shoes (diptych), captures a moment of trepidation and becomes topsy-turvy as the anesthesia kicks in and the surgical instruments pop off the canvas photoprint.
In another piece, Shanghai Subway, captures just such a moment—when and where the passengers commuting are frozen in their gazes, brought to life through the application of UV paint to punctuate their expressions and punctuate the glowing screens.
Swirly Park Bench, 2020 (96 x 54) "I imagined I fell asleep in a vibrantly-colored English garden and woke up in a swirling rabbit hole of color.” This UV-enhanced canvas photoprint captures the kaleidoscope of colors at Butchart Gardens, in Victoria, British Columbia. [RM_566]
Ralph’s works bring together a great variety of worlds, materials, textures and colors, often juxtaposed to nature, and some-times using elements from nature—such as leaves and rocks—as stencils and embellishments, coalescing contemporary icons into unique tapestries of modern life.
Resist, 2022 (64" x 90") This large canvas features motion-triggered sound bites and ultraviolet paint, to enhance viewers ‘experience of the piece. This non-traditional combination of media adds layers of sensory involvement unique to each viewer. Sound produced by collaborator, Peter B. Lewis immerses the viewer as piece is approached, in an angry crowd chant.
Leveraging his passion for gestures is the basis for creating decisively charged, extremely textured, shamelessly whimsical im-pressionistic paintings, Ralph’s work explores concepts of merging and combining shapes, forms, and colors—concepts of coming together and breaking apart—oftentimes deconstructing a larger canvas into a number of smaller, interrelated yet inde-pendent works. The physical act of separation and intersecting fluidity symbolizes everyday life as it diverges from the norm. Broad imaginative strokes prevail among constructed and deconstructed canvases, creating even more layers of dimension, texture and imagination.
City of Fallen Angel, 2009 (63” x 90”) This scene contains the hidden contours of a fallen angel within the blended maze of a darkened city, with dawn breaking, casting the angel into deep shadow, forever inseparable from the city, frozen in transition from the netherworld to the never more. Upside down, the City is highlighted by a starry night sky. [RM_088]
Broad imaginative strokes prevail among constructed and deconstructed canvases, creating even more layers of dimension, texture and imagination.
Up Against The Wall in Payne's Grey, 2022 (94" x 68") The second installation of Sensor-Driven Sound Art. Like “Resist”, sound and the music, “Livin for the City”, by Stevie Wonder , greet the viewer as the piece is approached. ©1973, Fair Use-Art Collage.
Ralph’s core message is that human activity creates a complicated tapestry of emotions and messaging through overlapping imagery across multiple and often-repeated expressions—at times contrasting, at times eerily consistent—chaotic slices of life, gaining meaning through their juxtapositions, repetitions and temporality.
Ralph, 2022 (90" x 30") Ralph script looks like street art, painted not sprayed, on left over canvas from “Resist” and “Up against the Wall”. This piece is part of a series, recalling the days where you paint on anything at hand, walls, streets, wherever you want to be seen and heard.
Ralph Miller’s work has been featured at showings in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San-to Domingo. Recently, he has been collaborating with artists in Havana on an abstract art exchange featuring contemporary Cuban and American artists. Ralph is currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Shapes 2, 2013 (68 X 84)
Swirling colors on a raw canvas, a ghostly face appears, vanishing into its ethereal ghostliness. The canvas strips away the amorphous figures taking shape and dissipating beyond the curtain revealing the structure of the canvas below. [RM_089]