Joshua Miller: Stay at Home Missionary

About

Joshua Miller: Stay at Home Missionary features several bronze and ceramic figurative candle-holders. These sculptures are centered in the gallery on a low-standing circular pedestal. Each sculpture features an individual in a different state of affliction. The figures are a meeting point between Impressionist figuration, 1970's kitsch home decor, and local poverty. 

Standing behind these sculptures on the back wall is a large oil painting of Ned Flanders' head (5x life size) on a plinth. Rendered with exaggerated detail, the portrait of Nedward Flanders Jr., looms large over the sculptures. Ned, a fictional character from the animated television series, The Simpsons, is a heterosexual father-figure who exemplifies white Christian American idealism and cognotive dissonance. 

On the adjacent wall, also looming over the sculptures, is an indexically organized painting from Miller's Love and Boredom series. This painting features fifteen crude earthtone adaptations of a Sillisculpt on a sun-yellow background. Sillisculpts were kitsch novelty toys from the 1970's that displayed saccharine & humorously depressing phrases. In Miller's painting Love and Boredom, Homeless, 2019, some of the Sillisculpts have messages that read: "whom do I love", “homeless”, and "whomless".
 

Feel free to email us, text or set an appointment time on our website. (Please contact us if none of these time slots are convenient for you.)

Masks will be required. Only 1-3 people allowed per appointment time slot. Frequently touched surfaces will be sanitized after each visit. (Our gallery is accessible through a sliding glass door.)