J. Coleman Miller

J. Coleman Miller's giclée prints occupy an ambiguous space between photographic abstraction and highly stylized representation. Certain small components remain so close to recognizable images that they stretch and tease our desire for closure to its breaking point. Miller uses his titles to extenuate this uncertainty: they prescribe a specific reading to each image, a reading that is simultaneously made impossible by the photographs' levels of abstractions.

Miller thereby creates a spirit of free play in which the images are liberated from the confines of linear interpretation, inviting viewers to take part in the production of meaning. Giving into the abstract aspects of the photographs, their strong colors and dynamic distortions convey energy and sensation. Instead of representing a specific place, action or object, they evoke sudden outbursts of emotion, moments of fleeting intensity. This expressive component of Miller's work, however, is never completely stable. Rather than suggesting a final emotional equation, his works lead the viewer into a continuous game of re-imagining.