Nick Miller (born 1962 in London) Is an Irish contemporary artist who has become known for reinvigorating painting and drawing in the traditional genres of Portraiture, Landscape and Still-life. He has developed an intense and individual approach to the practice of working directly from life, that has been described as a form of ''encounter painting''.
Biography
In 1984, after graduating in
Development Studies
Development studies is an interdisciplinary branch of social science. Development studies is offered as a specialized master's degree in a number of reputed universities around the world. It has grown in popularity as a subject of study since the e ...
at the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
he moved to
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
to pursue his interest in painting. He has lived and worked in Co Clare, Dublin, and apart from periods working in the US, he has largely been based in
Co Sligo since 1992. In 2018 after 34 years he became an Irish Citizen. He has become one of Ireland's leading contemporary painters. In recognition of his significant contribution to
Irish Art
The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands today, County Meath. In early-Bronze Age Ireland there is evidence of Beaker cult ...
, he was elected to
Aosdána
Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...
in 2001.
Exhibitions
Significant solo museum exhibitions of his work have taken place at the
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...
(''South African Works ''in 1994, and'' Nick Miller and the Studio of Edward McGuire'' in 2015-16) and, The
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
, Dublin in 2003''(Figure To Ground)''; The
Butler Gallery
Butler Gallery is a contemporary art gallery and museum in Kilkenny, Ireland. It presents a collection of works by Irish and international artists from the 18th century to the present day. A wing has been devoted to the work of the Callan arti ...
, Kilkenny Castle in 2004''(Genre)'';
Limerick City Gallery of Art and
Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in 2007''(Truckscapes: Drawings)''. In 2008 he exhibited ''Truckscapes: Paintings'' at the gallery of the historic
New York Studio School
The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all of ...
.
Career
In 1997 he converted a Truck, a mobile British Telecom workshop, into a mobile studio, facilitating the artist to work on large-scale paintings and drawings in the landscape, but protected from the elements. He began to gain critical recognition in the early 2000s exhibiting work that tackled the traditionally conservative tradition of Irish
Landscape painting
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...
through his particular approach of ''encounter painting'' to portray land and nature in the rural West of Ireland. The Mobile Studio enabled a highly productive 15-year period work that explored Landscape through the interface of the artist with both culture and nature. The "Truckscapes" were distinguished by the inclusion of the doorway of the truck, itself covered in splattered paint, as a painted meeting with nature defined by the artist and the reality of the 'truck-view'. Examples such as "From Cogan's Shed" (2004) can be found in collections of the
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
, "From Cogan's Shed" (2007)
Limerick City Gallery of Art, and "Whitethorn, truck-view" (2000-2001)
The Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Portraiture, and the formal meeting with his subject is a central tenet of Miller's practice influencing his approach to all genres of painting. For the artist, the artwork is the remains of a lived and painted encounter. In a seminal series of large scale CLOSER drawings made from 1996-2000 and shown in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
Miller drew his subjects, mostly close family and friends to make unconventional portraits including ''Corban'' (1996), Collection of IMMA, of the Irish artis
Corban Walker These drawings were made at very close quarters, exploring a single point perspective, face to face and straddling the subjects on the paper they were being drawn on the floor.
Amongst subjects, both well known and unknown, Miller has painted the author
John McGahern
John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006) was an Irish writer and novelist. He is regarded as one of the most important writers of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Known for the detailed dissection of Irish life found in wo ...
(1998)
The Niland Collection Sligo, and a full seated figure ''Portrait of John Hogan'' (2004), a farmer and neighbour of the artist for 16 years, during a period living on
Lough Arrow
Lough Arrow () is a freshwater lake in the northwest of Ireland. This large, scenic lake covers an area of and lies mostly in County Sligo with a smaller part in County Roscommon. It is a popular trout fishing lake.
Geography
Lough Arrow lies m ...
, Co Sligo. The painting is now in the collection of the
Hugh Lane Gallery
The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ( ...
, Dublin City Gallery, Dublin City Gallery. In 2014 he received the inaugural Hennessy Portrait Prize, held at the
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
. The award included a commission to paint the Irish musician
Donal Lunny
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
for the National Portrait Collection, and was given for his 2013 painting "Last sitting: Portrait of
Barrie Cooke", a fellow artist, and friend of Miller's who died in 2014. Both paintings are in the collection of the
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
.
In 2014 he was invited by the
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...
to respond to the donated studio contents of the renowned Irish portrait and still life painter
Edward McGuire (painter)
Edward McGuire (1932–1986) was an Irish painter.
Biography
The Irish portraitist, still-life artist and bird painter Edward McGuire was born in Dublin in 1932. He studied painting, drawing and the history of art at the Accademia di Belle ...
(1932–1986), now in the museum's collection. Miller took up residency in the Museum, spending time with McGuire's work studio contents and personal belongings. During the residency he made a series of still life paintings of objects and the many stuffed birds that Mcguire was renowned for painting. McGuire had died not long after Miller settled in Dublin, in 1986. As a way to connect to the man, he had not met, but whose work Miller admired, he invited a number of McGuires sitters to come and sit for him in IMMA and talk about Edward, often over 30 years later. These included Theresa Browne,
Garech Browne
Garech Domnagh Browne (25 June 1939 – 10 March 2018) was an Irish art collector and a notable patron of Irish arts, traditional Irish music in particular. He was often known by the Irish designation of his name, Garech de Brún, or alternative ...
, Wanda Ryan, and the poets
Anthony Cronin
Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin (28 December 1923 – 27 December 2016) was an Irish poetry, Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister.
Early life and family
Cronin was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford on ...
and
Paul Durcan
Paul Durcan (born 16 October 1944) is a contemporary Irish poet.
Early life
Durcan was born and grew up in Dublin and in Turlough, County Mayo. His father, John, was a barrister and circuit court judge; father and son had a difficult and forma ...
. The resulting exhibition at the museum: ''Nick Miller and the Studio of Edward McGuire'' (November 2016 -May 2016) featured both artists' works on similar subjects, and an installation of McGuire's studio belongings with a film made by Miller about McGuire's renowned "''Colour Dictionary''"
In the same way that Miller attempts to reinvigorate traditions around landscape and portraiture, he continues to evolve the genre of the 'still life', often merging still life with portraiture. In more recent years, since 2011 he began to return to painting elements of nature, flowers, weeds, branches and even seaweed, placed in a variety of vases. Initially painted on a domestic scale, this series of works are known as ''Vessels: Nature Morte''. Jackie Wullschläger describes the paintings: ''"Still life is always about holding time, but Miller's swiftly executed paintings also convey growth to decay, almost surreally speeded up: flowers bloom, glisten, wilt within each rapid painterly performance."'' They were painted over a number of years as a way to hold a connection to his dying mother. In the more the recent ''Rootless'' paintings Miller works with experiences of disintegration and order, as he takes the still lives to a monumental scale, affirming the primacy of 'Nature' as a true and vital reality.
Rootless: New Paintings
' 2019, ''What you are looking at is leaving''. Essay b
Martin Gayford
References
External links
Aosdána
www.nickmiller.ie
Includes; publications, images, reviews and biography.
Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin
Art Space Gallery, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Nick
1962 births
Living people
Aosdána members
Alumni of the University of East Anglia
Artists from London
People from Sligo (town)
20th-century British painters
20th-century Irish painters
British male painters
Irish male painters
21st-century British painters
21st-century Irish painters
20th-century Irish male artists