DAN MILLER: LIGHT BULB, 'SOCKET, OUTLET, FAN Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York. September 6 - October 19, 2024
This exhilarating display of 14 recent works on paper by Dan Miller (b. 1961) shows the renowned artist's virtuosity to full advantage. Among the most celebrated talents from Creative Growth Art Center in California, Miller has worked in the Oakland-based studio since 1992. Diagnosed with autism and largely nonverbal, he tends to begin mark-making with a single word or line and, working quickly, adds layer upon layer until he has built up a dense and intricate abstract work of art. His uncle owned a hardware store, and Miller's mark-making words often refer to electrical supplies and objects such as light bulbs or spray paint; sometimes, as he works, he says the word he is concentrating on. Occasionally, he paints ambidextrously. Miller also creates mixed-media embroidered art and typewritten pieces akin to concrete poetry.
Miller is represented by Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York and Diane Rosenstein Gallery in Los Angeles (where he had a solo exhibition earlier in 2024). His work was also shown in 2024 in "Creative Growth: The House that Art Built" at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as at Art Basel Paris.
In "Light Bulb, Socket, Outlet, Fan" - his third solo at Andrew Edlin - two ink drawings are hung near the entrance. In one, a monochromatic blue cloud of lines seems to float on the paper surface; the other is similar, but with an added area of darker ink. They are pleasing, impenetrable and perfectly self-contained. In the gallery's first room (of two), one wall is devoted to an unusual painting that Miller created in 2022. More than 13-feet (four metres) long, it feels less sprightly than the other artworks in the show, and features bold, textural shapes and angles in primary colours.
With sensitive variations in brushstroke weight, in ink and paint, and rhythmic application of lines, Miller's works practically vibrate with unique, inaudible musicality. A particularly subtle example is transcendent, its pale greens and yellows hovering over a tangle of darker lines. Looking to comprehend these ciphers, one's gaze lingers around the edges, where individual elements are revealed - nowhere more enjoyably, in this show, than in an untitled 2024 painting in which delicate lines are punctuated by drips of colour, and a series of circular shapes lead the eye around the picture to a pool of paint splashed on the paper's lower right corner.
- Emily B Schilling