Ben Miller in Residence + Artist's Reception.
Montana artist Ben Miller and master printmaker Gary Lichtenstein will create two original fine art silkscreen print editions during Ben’s residency at GLE. Stop by the studio or Courtyard A of MASS MoCA to watch the transformation of new paintings of the Hoosic River and Idaho’s South Fork of the Snake River.
Be sure to join us at GLE on Friday, August 7th from 4pm-6pm for a reception with Ben. This is an exciting opportunity to learn more about his process and the ways in which he supports river conservation efforts.
Refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.
A river is the convergence of three forces—water, gravity and topography—each inseparable from the others. It is a living system in motion, existing and being shaped at the same time. Montana-based artist Ben Miller returns to this shifting relationship again and again, as much a subject to be captured as a presence to remain in relation with.
A fly rod is a system of tapers – handle into shaft, shaft into line, line into leader. That taper is the engine of Miller’s work which he calls Fly-Cast Painting. Every painting begins as a physical arc through space: thousands of casts, thousands of accelerations and releases of the shaped materials he calls Fly Brushes, attached to the end of the line.
Miller paints on the back of the clear plexiglass. The plexiglass does not absorb the strike; it receives it. Only after the casting is finished and the paint has dried is the panel turned around to reveal the river.
Miller’s stated goal for these works is not to invent a river, but to mark down the truth of the one in front of him.
In 2018 Ben Miller began the Endangered Rivers Project out of a growing recognition that the rivers that had shaped his life and practice were also among the systems most at risk.
For more information including print release updates, visit benmillerartist.com and/or contact prints@benmillerartist.com