- PHOTO BY TOM FALCONER
- THE GOLDEN HORN : In Ecce Homo Lancelot Marini, Miles showcases his ability to make abstract sculpture look animated and almost animal-like.
“I’m profoundly interested in beauty and ugliness, and finding something to reconcile that,” Miles said during the exhibit’s opening.
When you wander into the gallery’s stark white room, that contrast becomes immediately evident. Towering, behemoth sculptures of golden yellow, bubblegum pink, and blood red perch on aluminum pipe next to enigmatic, globular ceramic pieces that shift in form and shade from every perspective. Though there are only 12 sculptures, they pack a powerful punch not only in terms of bold color and shape, but in their magnetic ability to defy easy definition.
This is the enigmatic effect Miles intends. For the past 20 years, he has explored all realms of art—painting, sculpture, art history—as a critic, curator, and Interim Dean of the College of Arts at California State University Long Beach. With said resume, it would seem Miles’ art would be the stuff of high theory and academic discourse. And, like all art, his work does participate in those formal discussions. During the exhibit’s opening, Miles spoke about his interest in the malleability of materials, perspective, and space that drives his diverse and complex sculptures. But, in truth, this is the kind of work the must be experienced in person, in the round.
- PHOTO BY TOM FALCONER
- THINK PINK : Christopher Miles makes bold, abstract sculptures as seen in the towering, papier-mâché piece Untitled (Jefferson Gene Lee Philip Duvall)
To begin his pieces, Miles first makes a rough sketch of the kind of form he is after. For his papier-mâché sculptures, he erects a skeleton of aluminum piping and then layers on a mix of heavy printmaking paper and a final coat of bright acrylic paint. Even for his ceramic pieces, they all start with a deep interest in the possibility and variety of form.
- PHOTO BY TOM FALCONER
- ARTERY : Miles’ ceramic sculptures evoke an organic and sometimes grotesquely visceral feel.
- MILES AHEAD : Christopher Miles’ exhibit at the Cuesta College Art Gallery runs through Sept. 26. The gallery is open Mon.-Fri., from 12-4 p.m. and is located on the in room 7170 at the Cuesta College campus right off of Highway 1 in San Luis Obispo. For more information, you can visit cuesta.edu or call 546-3100.
“I’m interested in the slipperiness of aboutness,” he said. “I’m interested in playing with the potential meaning of an object, and the clear contrast between the machine and the hand made. The only part of my life that is obsessive is the question, ‘What can you do with what? How can I make something that is brutal and also elegant?’”
Jessica Peña would happily eat a whale’s heart. Send one to her at [email protected].
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