About someone who knew no borders…

David Miller was someone who crossed borders. And not only geographically, as he did when he moved from England to France. He was just as talented in the different domains of sculpture, painting and ceramics ; the rigid groupings of the arts or being categorised as “modern” or “traditional” meant nothing to him : there was no special hierarchy or lack of compatibility. David Miller was as modern as he was traditional. He was an artist in both crafts and fine arts. He was able combine genres and techniques with supreme ease and skill and his unique method of working developed from different domains. After the first pieces, low temperature salt pots with lightly engraved decoration, he started exploring raku in France in the late seventies, producing vessels and non-vessels with really distinctive brushwork decoration. Then he turned to wood-firing. At the same time he began to produce a beautiful line in glazed earthenware, freely decorated and radiantly colourful. Both artistic and traditional, it was pure yet functional. Inimitable aesthetics have always defined his work and his exhibitions were inevitably powerful moments in the gallery world.

Marianne Heller,
Galerie Heller, Heidelberg, Allemagne.
In Prix David Miller, février 2015.

You can get deliciously absorbed in the intricate network of his graphic games – those black strokes that glide through the torrential invasion of bright colours, like so many symbols of creative vitality and unrestrained joy. How can we not think of Pollock or the New York graffiti artists when we look closely at his designs and motifs…?

The exhibition tribute to David Miller presents some thirty works realized between 1986 and 2007 which widely testify to the career of an accomplished artist.

• CV David Miller