Gerold Miller

20 October—21 December 2018

The galerie lange + pult is pleased to present Gerold Miller’s fifth solo exhibition in Zurich.

Once again, Gerold Miller deals with questions of pictoriality at the border between sculpture and pictorially defined architecture. His objects can be read as pictures, but it is equally legitimate to regard them as sculptures. The precise, angular aluminium objects appear elegant and their industrial aesthetics are reminiscent of Minimal Art works.

The impressive “section” work at the beginning of the exhibition as well as the latest “sets” oscillate between abstraction and reality, content and non-content, image and object. Their frontal orientation corresponds to the superficial aesthetic tendencies of our visual culture. Random impressions are reflected in their perfectly lacquered, monochrome surfaces, creating a connection between the work and the surrounding architecture: The emptiness of the monochrome becomes the protagonist, representing everything and nothing, while the interplay of matt and glossy lacquer and contrasting colours creates a virtual space behind the image.

In addition, the three “Verstärker” – Miller’s first series of free-standing, non-wall-related sculptures – bring with them the minimal basic concepts of three-dimensionality: height, length, and depth as an open structure. The “amplifiers” thus literally represent a fundamentally recurring theme in Miller’s artistic research: The countless possibilities of being able to describe the infinite space.

Finally, a sophisticated collision of concepts emerges: the real 3D space of the three “Verstärker” as well as the virtual space of the “sets” and “sections” works, which through their mutual reflections allow the exhibition space to be composed into a total work of art. This open interplay of the various parameters such as space, emptiness, form and color as well as the aspect of active participation by the viewer contradicts the traditional theory of the image as a static and hermetically sealed object.

Gerold Miller (*1961) has been represented worldwide in solo and group exhibitions as well as in international art institutions and public collections since the late 1980s such as; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; Federal Ministry of Art, Vienna; CCNOA, Brussels; Daimler Contemporary, Stuttgart / Berlin; Esbjerg Museum, Denmark; Graphische Sammlung ETH, Zurich; Kunstsammlung Weishaupt, Ulm; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Mallorca Art Foundation, Spain; Musée d’Art et d’histoire, Neuchâtel; Museum Ritter, Stuttgart; Société Générale, Paris; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; Sammlung Schauwerk, Sindelfingen; or Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund.

Gerold Miller was born in Altshausen, Germany and lives and works in Berlin.

Michèle Meyer