Joshua Miller, Human Asses, 2016, oil on canvas, 60 x 42.5 inches
Joshua Miller, La Momia Nino de Guevara, 2021, glaze on ceramic, 13 x 9 x 9 inches
Joshua Miller, Second Fruit Bowl, 2024, Glaze on ceramic, 13 x 9 x 9 inches
Joshua Miller, Camus’ Caligula, 2024, Glaze on ceramic 16 x 16 x 2 inches
Joshua Miller, Haystacks, 2017, Oil on canvas, 46 x 69.5 inches
Joshua Miller, BW# in Terracotta, 2024, Engobe on Terracotta, 8 x 7 x 4 inches
Joshua Miller: How I Learned to Stop Loving the Object and Start Loving the Image
January 27th-March 16th
Reception: January 27th, 3 pm - 6 pm
RAM is pleased to present How I Learned to Stop Loving the Object and Start Loving the Image, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Joshua Miller. Miller’s presentation showcases a collection of paintings, sculptures, and ceramics created over the course of eight years.
“The paintings fit well in the tradition of California Conceptualism, a mixture of a warm relationship with craftsmanship and a wry relationship with art history. The ceramics break from that strict conceptual way of making art and mostly tuned to my personal curiosities. They started in the middle of COVID and having my first child, so mortality and aging felt much more relevant to me than the trajectory of visual art. The sculptures are of Mummies, Shriners, Bog Men, old people, and dead people. Then, a year ago, my dad, Victor Miller, passed away. He was a potter his whole life, and I’ve been putting most of my energy this year into learning and continuing that family tradition.
The show title is a play on Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” The title is about giving in to the dominance of digital media. I’ve always preferred objects to photos, videos, etc., but now it seems like jpg on a phone screen is replacing everything. Culture is generated, appraised, and exchanged via a phone, and just like an atom bomb, I’m learning to love it.” -Joshua Miller
Joshua Miller (American, b.1981) is a contemporary painter and sculptor. Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, he is now based in Los Angeles. He obtained his BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 2015. His first solo exhibition took place at T293 in Rome, Italy, in 2019. Other solo exhibitions include those at Bozo Mag in Los Angeles, Below Grand in New York, No Gallery in Los Angeles, and the La Jolla Athenaeum in La Jolla, California. He has attended a number of national residencies, including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, New York, the Yaddo Residency in Yaddo, New York, and the Triangle Arts Workshop in New York.