Brittany Miller
Brittany in her studio.
Brittany Miller is a painter who lives and works in Bronx, NY. Miller's vulnerable figures, crouched and curled up in vague domestic spaces with expressions of listlessness and trepidation. Spinning cyclones and windswept landscapes press up against the windows, threatening the interiors. The bodies at rest fill the space--daydreaming and waiting for a storm that may or may not arrive. Miller has exhibited across the Northeast, including the Edward Hopper House and Deanna Evans Projects. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including those of Yale University and Montefiore Hospital's fine art collection.
Can you tell us a bit about the process of making your work?
The past few months I've been collecting imagery by texting friends at all hours, asking them to send photos of themselves in very specific poses. I also record video calls to take screenshots from later. I work with these images along with things I've worked out in drawings. The most difficult part is in merging everything together--the real and the imagined.
What are you working on at the moment?
Squall Line. 60 x 44 in.
I am in a strange moment where I feel as though I am finished with this body of work and am ready to move on, but it's hard to know for sure. Often when I think I'm done with an idea, most of the idea sticks around in the paintings that come after and I just end up tacking on a few new things.
Can you talk about the style and texture of your paintings? It creates this noise that perpetuates a more extended read, noticing more of your details and subjects more intimately.
My paintings are very flat, and they have a rubbed-on texture that looks like woodblock prints. I cut all my brushes down and scrub on the paint, letting it dry in between layers. At the end of my time at Pratt, I was making large-scale Bible coloring book paintings--almost-black outlines filled in with saturated color--cropped pictures of angels, floods, and falling pillars. My work now has a lot to do with those paintings. I've started adding frames around the edges, which contributes more to their flatness and the feeling that they are pieces of a (often apocalyptic) narrative.
What are some references you draw upon in your work? Are there any themes in particular that you like to focus on when creating?
Beyond the art world, I draw a lot from pieces of writing. I love books about lone unusual women who are unreliable narrators (aren't we all?)-- Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, The Passion according to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, and Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino. I'm thinking about theater aesthetics as well -- taking visuals from toy paper theater, set designs, and tableau vivant scenes from the productions themselves.
Four o’ clock. 18 x 24 in.
Where are some of your favorite spaces that support contemporary art or design? Now that the art has an online presence has that changed?
I love visiting Steven Harvey's Fine Art Projects--it was the first gallery that I went to after moving to New York (for an opening of paintings by June Leaf) and it still feels like such a special place. A few days ago I visited Peter Williams's show at Freight and Volume's new location, and I know that I will be going back.
Do you have any shows coming up? Anything else you would like to share?
I just finished installing my current project, which is a show of 15 of my paintings in conjunction with a production of Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries put on by Company of Fools at Culture Lab LIC. I also made a large piece that hangs above the stage as part of the set design. I'm excited to see the show open, and to see the way the theater piece interacts with the paintings. I am in the beginning stages of a few other collaborations, including a new play where my paintings will be both a central part of the set and the narrative.
Brittany Miller’s work is included in our show “The Alternative States,” May 3 - June 30, 2021. Visit their Instagram (@bjmiller.nyc) to see more of their work.