David B. Smith Gallery

David B. Smith Gallery is proud to present Recalcitrant Mimesis, a site-specific installation by Liz Miller in association with the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.

Liz Miller's mixed media installations and drawings recontextualize shapes, signs, and symbols from disparate historical and contemporary images to create abstract fictions. Existing forms from a multitude of sources are co-opted, altered, spliced, and recombined, and through this process, the shapes lose their real-world connotations, adopt hybrid identities, and take on fictitious roles. The use of felt, foam, and other tactile materials further complicates the question of source, masking the identity of the forms, while allowing them to inhabit two-dimensional and sculptural space.

Liz Miller's installation utilizes the work of Clyfford Still as a point of departure. Still's irregular, gestural brushstrokes are the catalyst for dynamic, new two- and three-dimensional forms. The shapes assume their own narrative as they progress through the gallery in a manner both organized and aggressive, ultimately enveloping the viewer in a vibrant world of shape and color.