Justin Henry Miller’s work emerges from an interest in our inundation of images and the mental layering that occurs as we experience, process, and recall. As we age we experience more, and our cognitive webs grow denser. The elements that compose Miller’s paintings are coalescing fragments that teeter between cooperation and individualism. In some instances, the interweaving layers come together to provide a greater clarity, while in others they convolute. Still in some pieces, unique moments ultimately prevail.

In the series of works on paper, Miller follows a series of protocols when composing these images. The paintings are created reductively, using the white of the paper to serve as the initial or ‘key’ layer. A layer of color is then applied, and another layer of linear imagery is masked out. This process is repeated through multiple color layers until finally the masked areas are removed back down to the white of the original surface. The result is an ancestral armature emerging from the relational forms grafted on top.

Justin Henry Miller was born in Arcola, Illinois (1981). He lives and works in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He received his MFA from the University of Notre Dame (2006), his BA (2002) and his MA (2003), both from Eastern Illinois University. Miller has exhibited his artwork in numerous exhibitions across the nation and abroad. He is currently an Associate Professor and Area Head of Painting at Southeast Missouri State University.