Genell Miller

American, Born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in St. Louis.
Lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri.

Genell Miller's paintings explore formal concerns of pattern, repetition and scale, while hinting at her art historical influences. Miller created this series upon returning to St. Louis after staying 11 years in Rome, Italy, and her time among the old masters peeks through her craft. Her reiterations of flora are brought to life in flesh tones reminiscent of the whispy peach-pink of Raphael's bodies. Her color palette is warm and nostalgic, a maternal embrace on canvas, and the use of repetitive line gesture is indicative of Miller's exposure to the art history of Italy. The rough, charcoal history of each flower's beginning often shows through, and the almost architectural investigation and rendering of the form allude to pages from Michealangelos sketchbooks. The suggestion of the traditional women's crafts of quilting and sewing are evident in the grid-like repetition, which also conversely conveys a sense of mechanical mass production. Miller's new work is a marriage of technique and sensibility, line and form, learned history and sense memory.

Miller was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in St. Louis. She received her BFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis in 1977, and studied at Temple University in Philadelphia. She taught design at St. Louis Community College and was a painting instructor at Beaver College, as well as a guest lecturer at institutions such as Webster University, Cornell University Rome, and Temple University Rome. Miller has been featured in over 49 individual and collective exhibitions in cities around the world, including New York, Kansas City, Chicago, Italy, Switzerland and Taipei, and her work is held in private collections across the United States and Europe.

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