„Mastery, that is that patina which results from many years of tireless polishing.“
(„In Praise of Mastery“, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro)

 

VAN HORN is delighted to present Gerold Miller’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

This show exhibits works from the series instant vision which are presented in their unique crates. Being transferred from the wall into space, these wall works explore their relation to their environment while simultaneously pointing back to their origin: the artist’s studio.

Throughout his oeuvre, Gerold Miller investigates the intersection where pictorial space becomes an intermediate zone between image and sculpture, between abstraction and reality.

Gerold Miller is one of those artists who have pursued their work with inimitable consistency and dedication for decades. He allows himself to be impressed neither by the spirit of the times nor by current events, but directs his gaze beyond time. He works in his individual, very own timeline; his work embodies a kind of timelessness.

As important as it is to relate to current events in art, humankind’s need to experience works of transcendence beyond them is just as deep. To create and contemplate works that point beyond daily life. Gerold Miller is certainly an artist who does this. Beauty and elegance meet radicality in concept and realisation.

Human’s deep longing for wholeness and stillness in a crazy world resonates in Gerold Miller’s works, which capture time and devotion. In countless hours of testing different variations and endless layers of immaculate paint, the artist’s interest is less in surface than in depth. Physical reminders of the many transformations his work undergoes – between Max Bill and James Bond.

Such dedication is probably best described by the Japanese concept of „geinnin“, „a master who is far beyond mere virtuosity, although he would always be capable of it, thanks to extensive and extremely rigorous training and his relentless continued learning and education“. But vanity is foreign to a master, and he is never satisfied with himself. His apprenticeship never ends. „* The artist’s ego takes a back seat to his work.

The first time I stood in one of Gerold Miller’s spacious studios, I was impressed by the scale and consistency of his work, by his love of the very big shot and the smallest detail. Of course, there were works installed on the walls, works between image and object, between hard shining and softly glowing, beautiful and glamorous. The works that had remained in their transport boxes and were presented in them developed a presence all of their own.

These crates embody the rupture between studio and world, between the immaculateness of the objects and the everydayness of the crates. They tell of logistics, of transport routes and the professional necessities beyond pure art. The various transports have clearly inscribed their traces in the material of the crates. The „Crate“ develops its very own presence. In connection with the actual object, a new, unexpected third emerges – a modern sculpture.

These new things will be on show in the exhibition „modern sculpture“ at VAN HORN.

*Quotation: Tanizaki Jun’ichirō: Lob der Meisterschaft, Manesse Verlag Zurich 2010

GEROLD MILLER | GALLERY EXHIBITIONS