GEROLD MILLER
20 MARCH
02 MAY 2026

In this, the artist’s third exhibition at VAN HORN, we see a precise arrangement of new works that engage fully with the material and the space. With his works, Gerold Miller operates at the boundary between image and body. Are Miller’s works still painting, or are they already sculpture? Aspects of both categories can be cited, yet the works themselves transcend these classifications. Miller described this contradictory effect as follows: “As ‘images without an image,’ they are neither references to something existing nor do they evoke associations. Nevertheless, they explicitly engage with questions of pictoriality.”

As viewers, we experience a paradox: through these works—which are positioned very decisively in space and firmly anchored in the real and the present—we are able, on the one hand, to recall the entire visual history of our culture, while on the other hand, we gaze into an indeterminate and open space of possibilities. Miller’s works open up the space around them. Their existence as objects in this space is physically unambiguous, yet remains permeable.

The experience of a work of art fundamentally triggers a simultaneous process of seeing, thinking, remembering, and feeling. Gerold Miller guides this process with great deliberation through his choice of form, material, and color in his works. An initial grasp of the work occurs immediately, but then another space opens up—both in the physical and metaphorical sense. In his art, there is nothing that could be described as a middle ground. He offers no place of retreat; his objects function like a lens: an object of observation, direction of gaze, and reflection all at once. We are confronted with our own way of perceiving, our thoughts, and our presence.

Through reflections on their own flawless surfaces, his works bring the space into play, allowing it to flow right into them. Ultimately, however, it is the openness of the works—their proverbial superficiality— that constitutes their essential power. “Reality is the substance of my work. Since the beginning of my artistic career, I have been exploring the idea of withdrawing from the image without actually leaving it behind.”

Miller continually explores the conditions of each individual artwork—the conditions of its creation as well as the conditions of its contextualization in the exhibition space, in publications, in the artist’s own texts, and on the internet. For Miller, each of these formats—including his own website and an Instagram account—is not merely an image or a narrative thread, but a test, a game, a round. Time and again, combinations and sequences are compared, shifted, tested, and new constellations created. Much like in a card game, the elements are limited; it is precisely this concentration and regulation that give rise to extensive possibilities for development and differentiation. It is these shifting and repetitive movements, steps, and processes within the various groups of works that ultimately lead to perfection while achieving maximum effectiveness—this is Gerold Miller’s method: continuous training. To describe Miller’s style as a minimalist formal language is misleading. He develops his work from a radical, conceptual, and elegant foundation, allowing himself moments of intuition. If one traces the evolution of the resulting works, one can see, within the framework of self-imposed principles, their great diversity and remarkable openness.

Based on a text by Frank Boehm 

Installation views photo J. Bendzulla

GEROLD MILLER | GALLERY EXHIBITIONS