7.30.12 Featured Artist: Ryan Peter Miller

Ryan Peter Miller, Pebeo Studio Acrylics: Primary Cyan, 2012, Acrylic on Arches 140lb WC Paper, 30 x 22.5in

Masquerading as tubes of cyan paint, my latest series of paintings depict portraits of pigments, wearing their commercial costumes. “Types-o-cyan” considers the way color evades objective definition, creating a basic problem for the painting medium. These paintings continue my artistic dissection of paint, as a contemporary cultural artifact.

For those committed to visual culture, cyan is a moniker that evokes an explicit set of color properties. Its proliferous use in subtractive printing processes and electronic display devices has cemented a color profile in our collective consciousness. Cyan arrives weekly on the cover of our favorite guilty pleasure magazines, and from its ubiquitous use in print materials, it has trickled down into a myriad of contemporary consumer products. Perhaps as a result of its pervasive presence, cyan has recently emerged as a popular hue in the catalog of many paint manufactures.

While its commercial home has provided cyan a persistent phenotype, as a Fine Art product, cyan paint lacks the color consistency found in its Design trade sister. In “Types-o-cyan,” tubes of cyan paint are hand rendered on paper, emulating the halftone print process. Each image is painted using the paint contained within the depicted tube. The variance of the proprietary pigments is elevated from product affectation to conceptual content. By articulating the subtle differences within a single color, I am gently tugging at the frayed edges of contemporary painting. This point is hopefully made more poignant as these colors are being viewed through the cyan of your electronic display device.

Ryan Peter Miller is the name for a human artist currently living in Chicago, IL. In 2008 he received notice of his status as a Master of Fine Arts upon graduation from Arizona State University. His work has been featured in New American Paintings, and he exhibits nationally and internationally, and if you follow string theory, interdimensionally. His upcoming exhibit, “Painthings,” opens at Purdue University, October 15, 2012. He currently teaches Drawing and Painting at Carthage College, in Kenosha, WI.

Artist website: ryanpetermiller.com