While Jo Miller broadens his universe, partners Karen and Michael Bivins expand the gallery’s roster with internationally acclaimed sculptors. In our warp-speed universe, ten years is an eternity. Yet that is how?long it has taken artist JD Miller to perfect his signature style. Miller?calls himself a Reflectionist, saying, ?The philosophy came about?when I was in the music business. It is a belief that what you put out in the universe is reflected back.? He adds, ?I had a creative vision?when I was four years old. I have single-mindedly pursued art and music since then.? At 16, Miller decided to focus on his music career. As an undergraduate at the University of North Texas, he founded?a music syndication studio. But while still in school, he discovered?ceramics and soon changed his major to visual art. He subsequently?entered Texas Woman?s University?s graduate program in sculpture?and ceramics. He began oil painting 18 years ago and it is for this?that he is best known.
Miller credits his early interest in art to his childhood?environment. Now 60, he says he grew up watching cartoons. His?father, a former executive with Moore Business Forms, would bring?home rolls of paper nearing their end. Using colorful crayons and?brilliant imaginations, JD and his brother, Scot, would create 50??space dioramas. This inspired both of them into careers in the arts.?Scot Miller is a photographer and owner of Sun to Moon Gallery in?the Design District.
JD Miller believes that there are no coincidences. Indeed, all?of his experiences have coalesced into the work he does today. He?explains, ?One night I squeezed oil paint onto my palette and saw?a blob. I thought it looked like sculpture.? Using a mixing knife, he?put it onto his canvas. ?From that moment, I ?started this 3-D oil?technique,? he says. In seeing the possibilities within one dollop ofoil paint, he adds, ?If I hadn?t been a potter, I never would have?made that connection.?
At this point, his music and art careers have dovetailed. He still?plays in a band, called ?Reflection Theory.? At least once a year, he?will give a performance in his studio in which he alternates playing music with creating a painting. His live performances, which he also?does for several charities, are one of the many ways in which Miller?shares his technique with others.
He is also generous with other artists. Reflectionism and 3-D oil ?paintings are, for him, schools of art. He has mentored about 12?painters who now make their living using this technique. Among?them is Philip Romano, with whom he founded Samuel Lynne?Galleries in 2008, where the work of both artists can be seen.
Miller is an avid student of the French Impressionists. He says,??I studied Van Gogh?s work extensively. He was the first to create?sculptural work in paint.? In their lifetime, the work of this group?of artists was reviled. Only one bold gallerist, Paul Durand-Ruel,?chose to exhibit their work. Miller posited to Romano that they be?the Durand-Ruel of Dallas, showing primarily Reflectionist work.
The Gallery has been successful. But to achieve national and?international recognition, it needed directors with a global reach.?With the arrival just over two years ago of Karen and Michael Bivins,?that goal came into sight.
After careers in law and corporate finance, respectively, Karen?and Michael have spent the past 20+ years in the art world. Following?years of buying and selling works for their own collection, they?opened a curatorial consultancy in San Francisco in 1990. Ultimately, ?they moved to Beverly Hills where they assembled collections and,?as Michael says, ?bought and sold everything from 15th century art to Warhols and everything in between.? From there, they moved their?business to Madrid, where they could work with major galleries and?participate on the European art circuit. Finally, aging parents brought?them back to Dallas, Karen?s hometown.
When they returned, they contacted everyone they knew in the?local art world, including Romano, with whom they had been in touch?several years earlier. They became partners in the gallery and took?over operations and curatorial decisions. Miller says they also brought?a roster of blue chip artists with them, including sculptors John?Henry, Hans van de Bovenkamp, Fletcher Benton, Stephen Knapp,?and Tom Holland. Their goal is to make the gallery a destination?for sculpture. They are also creating an artist-in-residence program?that will allow sculptors, working in another building in the Design?District, to work on a massive scale. They plan to host their first?resident artist next spring.
They have also been active in the US art fair scene. This past year?they participated in Miami?s Concept Art Fair and Miami International?Art Fair. Over the summer, they were included in Art Southampton and ArtAspen. In the winter, they will have booths at Art Palm Beach?and the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair. And at every fair, one artist seems?to stand out: JD Miller. At Art Southampton the press interviewed?only three of the 300 artists and he was one of them.
Miller?s collectors are equally enthusiastic. One of the gallery?s?clients, Lisa Benson, first saw Miller?s work in 2007 at the DIFFA?fundraiser. She sums up Miller?s success as follows, ?His personal?dedication, his inherent talent and fluidity of the medium are?incredible.? Her collection includes several of Miller?s pieces along?with works by Georges Braque, Diego Rivera, Robert Rauschenberg,?Andy Warhol and Dale Chihuly. She is equally excited about the?direction in which the Bivinses are taking the gallery, saying, ?Art?Basel! Really! That?s what is going to put him (Miller) on the map.?
On November 22, Samuel Lynne Galleries will mount a solo show?for Miller titled Luminous Levitation. ?The show embodies inspiration?from my recent travels to both of the American coasts this past?year. Luminous Levitation will debut my newest multimedia sculptures,?which are my first fully holographic creations,? says the artist
Ever the experimenter Miller describes: ?I am combining totally?new elements in my work by infusing light, color, wood, and 3-D?acrylic in a way that is multidimensional and kinetic. In these new?sculptures, I have manipulated acrylic paint to make it appear to float?in three-dimensional space, while light continually scrolls through the?entire color spectrum.?
Entering more museum collections is a primary goal for Miller.?He currently has work at the Meadows Museum and Jesuit Museum.?Using the Reflectionist theory, the optimism in his work will surely?make this aspiration a reality. To that end, there is no negativity in?Reflectionist art. Miller sums it up best, saying, ?My heart and soul?go back to Impressionism. I want things that are beautiful and make
your heart sing.? –P