drawings

Press Release

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to present drawings, a project space exhibition with James Miller.

Across a suite of new works, James Miller works within the parameters of drawing—defined at its core as rendered marks on a paper substrate—tracing movement, light, and shadow in a process akin to cameraless photography. Using an airbrush as a pneumatic stylus working against the contrasting suction of a vacuum apparatus, Miller guides particulate pigments across the surface of the paper, leaving behind the sediment of drawn elements in distilled gestures. Like his paintings, Miller’s drawings reference the history of light-based media such as the early motion studies of Étienne-Jules Marey, and Martin Barré’s Zebra paintings which embrace the essential elements of air and color. As the focal point of the stylus hits the substrate, the resulting process comes to resemble light entering the aperture of a camera, or the pupil of an eye. Appearing as smooth gradients from afar, the surface disperses into points of particulate as you approach—marks are both sensual and sensory, revealing topographies of visual feedback.

James Miller (b. 1986, from Spokane, WA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA from Yale University in 2014. His solo exhibitions include Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York (2022, 2019) and Mehoyas, New York (2016) with group exhibitions at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2021), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2020), Y2K Group, New York (2019); Underdonk, Brooklyn (2019); Soloway, Brooklyn (2018); Essex Flowers, New York, NY (2017); and Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA (2010). Miller served as the Alex Katz Visiting Artist at The Cooper Union in 2019 and was a recipient of the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship in 2015.