Mirror Mirror | Stuart McAlpine Miller

MIRROR MIRROR

xxxx Original Oil on Canvas | xx cm x xx cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 1

MIRROR MIRROR

xxxxx Original Oil on Canvas | xx cm x xx cm 2 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Castle Fine Art, together with Washington Green Fine Art are proud to present Stuart McAlpine Miller’s latest collection of never-before-seen original paintings. Following the sold out ‘Altered Images’ of 2013, this December sees the display of Mirror Mirror, an exhibition of astonishing new work by the Scottish-born, Glasgow School of Art graduate.

To date, McAlpine Miller has enjoyed successful solo exhibitions with galleries in London, New York and Hong Kong, and his work continues to attract the attention of galleries and collectors across the world. With further exciting collaborations set for 2015 – featuring fashion, film and a truly futuristic journey, it seems that even the sky provides no limits for this treasured fine artist.

A truly unique collection which features McAlpine Millers’ signature stylish and seductive supermodels alongside brightly coloured cartoon characters, Mirror Mirror sees the artist mature and explore the deeper and darker sides of life. As the title suggests, the exhibition is the artists call to action for viewers to reflect upon the past and future as a presently technology led, consumer driven and image-saturated society. Through his deft handling of paint and subject matter, we as viewers are challenged to see past conventional ideals of beauty and examine our own reflection in the mirror.

Join us through the looking glass...

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FOREWORD by Estelle Lovatt

McAlpine Miller: from the Dutch Golden Age to Hollywood’s Golden Age from Vermeer to the Wizard of Oz Just as you never forget your first love, you’ll never forget the first time you lay eyes on a McAlpine Miller painting. And yet, curiously, you won’t remember it in much detail, either.

Each time you look at it you’ll see something new in its veiled multi-layers of paint. I do.

Then, after viewing the artwork it’s all about ‘experiencing’ it. In the same way that you do a good book, or a film, returning to it again and again. The sheer quality, and quantity of digital media-like detail, in paint, is of today, as we have moved from the verbal to the pictorial.

We see a catalogue of stock images, all day, as we run from our computer screen to tablet, cinema screen to mobile phone, smart watch to iPad. Wrapped up in new-media magic we go from one great virtual adventure to another. Flip-flopping between the virtual and the real. Since Warhol created digital art using his Commodore Amiga computer, McAlpine Miller’s captures his high-tech social-media look, in paint and, superfluously, by hand. Just as Turner made social and mechanical references to his time in his painting, of the Industrial Revolution and the steam train, so too McAlpine Miller paints about our time.

The many different layers of paint provide the many different perspectives. Layers upon layers of a story just like a good novel. Every time you look at a McAlpine Miller it changes as you change and your point of reference changes; you see new things in it, which have always been there, but perhaps just haven’t been relevant to a particular stage of life. It will.

In the meantime let’s go right back in time, to Vermeer. Women were the key subject in his artwork. Gazing out, wistfully, directly at you. They focus on household chores. These women are frozen in moments of time. Doing domestic duties from needlework to cooking, washing to minding children, gossiping and eavesdropping, playing music, reading and ... daydreaming. McAlpine Miller’s paintings remind me of a Dutch Golden Age Vermeer, as he too places the woman as key, central to the pictorial narrative. ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, one of Vermeer’s masterworks, is not a simple portrait, it’s more a 17th century generic image.

As McAlpine Miller makes clear, “Though some of my subjects are highly recognisable the others are designed as generic suggestions….someone you think you may recognise.” She is me, she is you.

McAlpine Miller projects all the classical formulae of art techniques as an important issue in his repertoire, with much aesthetic value. The glow, inner radiance, coming from Vermeer’s women is what McAlpine Miller picks up, to become today’s Master of Light. The background is about light too. It was Gainsborough, for instance, who painted his landscape on to glass, and lit it from behind, in order to gain much luminosity. Even billboards nowadays are all video, the images are backlit, like your iPhone, with the brightness on high. And this is what McAlpine Miller realises in paint. He is highly structured when designing his background, which also doubles as his middle ground and foreground, highly crafting his richly decorated

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backdrop like a theatrical film set. It’s how his paint has a see-through translucence about it, as if he’s using transparencies.

He paints with light and curious perspectives, the pattern(ing) of a highly structured composition, so abstract in its geometry of mathematical proportions, balanced with the Divine Proportions of the Golden Ratio, beautifully. Much is accomplished with technical genius, that his attention to fabrics and textures show off his talent and skill so greatly, Veronese would be jealous.

Whilst Vermeer’s paintings of women show a place where woman are lit by the heavens, a simple pictorial tool to glorify women, McAlpine Miller’s suggestion of an invisible light is visible in the cartoon sense. Feelings present, without being illustrative. Emotions bubble under the skin of dried varnished oil paint. And, beneath it all, under glistening surfaces, it’s all about things that are not said; about opportunities not taken; about chances to be seized; potentials to be realized; lips kissed as in ‘Why Don’t You Ever Call’, as the Babe hangs on the telephone line waiting for her Superman. As we all are.

However diverse the relationship is in crossing boundaries and cultures, McAlpine Miller’s exceptional perspective delivers flashes of time from the past to the present, that, just as you recognise a voluptuous Rubens female or Twiggy behind David Bailey’s lens as fashionably sexy in their time, you’ll recognise a McAlpine Miller model.

As McAlpine Miller’s women busy themselves in his ‘theatrical stage’, each gains authority, becoming their own, powerful, Superhero, symbolic and allegorical in meaning, with its own specific religious beauty, as in Sassoferrato’s radiant, glowing, Renaissance portrait ‘The Virgin in Prayer’, his canvas stands up like a Classical painting. Elegant, technically sophisticated and complex. What look like simple compositions, of timeless moments, are also about great art in form, linear brush stroke and depiction/definition of the figure under what looks like a controlled, yet dynamic, use of lustrous colour.

The colours in McAlpine Miller’s pictures are so of the cinema, in high definition. And in the numerous way(s) that each one tells a story, and overlaps its imagery. Their message is significant, from America’s Golden Age of Hollywood to the upright Norman Rockwell mother-figure; from Wonder Woman, to her original, the Gibson Girl, by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. All embody the personification of the most ideal type of (American) woman, to whom women aspire, even today.

Cinema - aside from being one of the greatest inspirations to Cubism, is of great inspiration to all people. And was especially so in the 1930s Great Depression as Hollywood entered its Golden Age - the Imperial Era of cinema - and The Wizard of Oz became a timeless classic. This movie became as much a symbol of the United States as the Stars and Stripes.

Instantaneously, it became the greatest American movie of all time, capturing the world, its sense of hopefulness and the zeal of childhood. “We seem to be caught in an image-related environment where looks dictate...that our reality relies purely on image and how that image is regarded”, exclaims the artist. How The Wizard of Oz digests technicoloured rinses of

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hue reminds me of McAlpine Miller’s palette. Direct from the Cinematographer’s use of a gloriously rich rainbow of colours, from the emerald green city to ruby red shoes; blue birds flying in blue skies; acid-yellow candy lemon-drops; and a yellow brick road. When Dorothy develops the story, that, here, “It's not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train.

It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain...”, McAlpine Miller picks up the tempo, transporting you straight in to the heart of his painting, full of allegorical symbolism, often highlighted by the title of his picture, and the standpoint of his models, even.

Some might say McAlpine Miller objectifies the models he paints, but no, he really doesn’t.

His women are powerful. That’s part of their appeal. Consider this – sticking with The Wizard of Oz allegory, in Dorothy the feminist message is strong. Any character that has any real power in Oz is female. Dorothy... the witches.... And the men are all wanting; a wizard without magic, a lion without courage, a tin man without a heart and a scarecrow without a brain. Yet here, McAlpine Miller is the ‘man behind the curtain’, saying, he paints, “The idea that each individual has an imagination, and something greater, beyond the plastic outer wrapping.

Something which goes firmly against the idea of a fair and just feminist society that is looked upon as a mere vehicle to promote and sell.” Proving his point, see how youth, beauty and spirit comes into its own in ‘The Reveal’, where comic imagery from the 1950s American comic book ‘Archie’ is backing the Cheerleader, aware of the power of her sexuality, with her pants and t-shirt pulled taut exposing her midriff and highlighting her curves, she’s the perfect girl. As we understand Cheerleaders are icons whom launch the American interest of natural sex appeal, some might describe McAlpine Miller’s portrayal of women as sexy.

Too sexy. But no, compare him with Allen Jones and Jones’s stiff women with long legs in high heels and breasts in bondage. Flat, with probably nothing more on offer, beyond a sexist demeaning drag. Making McAlpine Miller more Pin-Up, more Flying Girls, and giving a commendable, praiseworthy, identity to the ‘Darlin’ Doll’ painted on the nose cone of an aeroplane, boosting the morale of the air force troops. From bomb to Bombshell.

As McAlpine Miller is not about the objectification of women, he is, instead, an artist whom admires women, and the female form, from Kate Moss to Madonna. With all the excitement we want to connect with in our own personal lives. McAlpine Miller’s girls smile at us as today’s Mona Lisa. Her red lips parted ever-so-slightly. Demanding we ask who she is and what she’s thinking. What was the artist thinking about her? And what do you think of her now? These attractive, oh come on let’s be honest, extremely sexy women, are the point of departure for you. Their seeming familiarity is just your imagination playing with illusions as your fantasies become part of the grit in McAlpine Miller’s oyster.

The model brings desires, aspirations and satisfaction; a place where your ideas and desires are provided with a platform to thrive, rouse and grow. Engaging in intimate eye contact with you, all that glorious, sumptuous, detail makes sensual the narrative as McAlpine Miller layers the narrative, thickly, in his paintings much the same way that a music producer, like George Martin, is able to create a multi-track recording with layers of sound and nuance.

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Mixed with an awful lot of Americana it’s an American beauty. In fact, McAlpine Miller’s women remind me of the soundtrack for ‘American Beauty’, the movie (Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, 1999), when rock band Free, sing, ‘All Right Now’, “There she stood in the street. Smilin' from her head to her feet...”1 So confident, so powerful, they do, right out of the canvas.

Timeless in pictorial creation and composition, its mix, rooted in aesthetical Classical ideals, coupled with commercial Americana, are qualities seen in ‘It’s A Fair Cop’, as Top Cat high jinxes Officer Dibble, juxtaposed by not one, but two, gorgeous, buxom, female police chiefs standing strong in stance and determination. Suggesting we all have two sides; the one that we let people see and the one that we don’t; a good side and a bad side; a restrained, respectable, side and a darker, more seductive side; a history and a future.

And let’s be honest, no one can deny it’d be the ultimate male fantasy. As put forward by the artist, “the main characters in these works reflect this idea”. This is most appropriate in achieving painting’s primary goal of elevating the human spirit, and accomplished in ‘Never Give Up’. Significantly (as a fitting commemoration to all Wars), it depicts a man, not a woman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, showing power through the comic-book, with much determination and yet he still needs us. With this, McAlpine Miller captures values that are of worldwide concerns, not merely temporal.

And this is McAlpine Miller’s skill, the juxtaposition of the cartoon and the fantasy, made real. © Estelle Lovatt FRSA

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Writer(s): Andy Fraser, Paul Bernard Rodgers. Copyright: Blue Mountain Music Ltd.

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Bearing Her Soul Original Oil on Canvas | 101 cm x 76 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 8 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Forever Friends Original Oil on Canvas | 107 cm x 81 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 9

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A Shot In The Head Original Oil on Canvas | 127 cm x 107 cm 10 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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You Never Call Original Oil on Canvas | 86 cm x 69 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 11

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A Bit For A Bite Original Oil on Canvas | 87 cm x 61 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 12 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Time Travellers Wife Original Oil on Canvas | 102 cm x 76 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 STUART McALPINE MILLER | 13

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The Reveal Original Oil on Canvas | 127 cm x 107 cm 14 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Saints And Sinners Original Oil on Canvas | 86 cm x 55 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 15

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The Shirt Off Her Back Original Oil on Canvas | 86 cm x 64 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 16 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Bat In The Hat Original Oil on Canvas | 102 cm x 71 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 17

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Cos I'm A Believer Original Oil on Canvas | 87 cm x 73 cm 18 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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A Game Of Cat And Mouse Original Oil on Canvas | 91 cm x 65 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 19

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Good Against Evil Original Oil on Canvas | 81 cm x 61 cm 20 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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All The Fun Of The Circus Original Oil on Canvas | 86 cm x 65 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 STUART McALPINE MILLER | 21

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Comic Faced Chick Original Oil on Canvas | 102 cm x 77 cm 22 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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As I Travel Through Oz Original Oil on Canvas | 127 cm x 108 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 23

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Split Personality Original Oil on Canvas | 112 cm x 79 cm 24 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Mistaken Identity Original Oil on Canvas | 102 cm x 71 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 25

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It's a Fair Cop Original Oil on Canvas | 122 cm x 108 cm 26 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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The Firecracker Original Oil on Canvas | 97 cm x 76 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 27

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Dress For All Occasions - Drawing Original Oil on Canvas | 119 cm x 84 cm 28 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Dress For All Occasions Original Oil on Canvas | 128 cm x 98 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 29

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Reflected Headshot I (Series of four) Original Oil on Canvas | 51 cm x 44 cm 30 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Reflected Headshot II (Series of four) Original Oil on Canvas | 51 cm x 44 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 31

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Reflected Headshot III (Series of four) Original Oil on Canvas | 51 cm x 44 cm 32 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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Reflected Headshot IV (Series of four) Original Oil on Canvas | 51 cm x 44 cm STUART McALPINE MILLER | 33

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Never Give Up Original Oil on Canvas | 91 cm x 65 cm | Also available as an edition of 9 34 | STUART McALPINE MILLER

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BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

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Biographical Highlights 2015 Coming soon...

2014 Artist in Residence at: The Savoy Hotel, London. McAlpine Miller continues his residency and is currently working on new paintings for the renowned five-star hotel.

2002 Exhibition at: Glasgow Art Fair Exhibition at: Dublin Art Fair Exhibition at: New Contemporaries, Business Design Centre, London Exhibition at: Catto Gallery, London

2013 Exhibition at: Castle Fine Art, Mayfair. The sold out solo show, ‘Altered Images’.

Collaboration with: London Fashion House, Lulu & Co. Commissioned by: Luxure Magazine to create the front cover of this exclusive luxury style magazine. The original painting was unveiled and sold at a star studded event at The Ivy, Leicester Square.

2000 Exhibition at: Catto Gallery, London

2012 Artist in Residence at: The Savoy Hotel, London Various exhibitions at: The Hay Hill Gallery, London Exhibition at: State of the Arts Gallery, Hong Kong Confirmed worldwide publishing deal with: Washington Green Fine Art

1998 Commissioned by: BBC, Bravissimo, McVities, Persil, Renault, Virgin

2011 Various Solo and Group Exhibitions at: Art & Escape, London Exhibition at: The Hay Hill Gallery, London Exhibition at: State of the Arts Gallery, Hong Kong 2010 Exhibition at: The Hay Hill Gallery, London Exhibition at: Cross My Art, London 2009 Co-founded art gallery: Art & Escape, London Exhibition at: Kings Road Gallery, London Exhibition at: Affordable Art Fair, London 2008 Private sale: 10 works to British collector 2007 Commissioned by: Decoratum Gallery Exhibition at: Charlotte Street Gallery, London Exhibition at: Catto Gallery, London Exhibition at: Glasgow Art Fair Exhibition at: Dublin Art Fair 2004 Commissioned by: Paul McCartney 2004 European Tour Exhibition at: Glasgow Art Fair Exhibition at: Dublin Art Fair 2003 Exhibition at: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

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1999 Exhibition at: Catto Gallery, London Exhibition at: Duncan Miller Fine Art Exhibition at: Glasgow Art Fair

1997 Commissioned by BBC Exhibition at: Gagliardi Gallery, London 1996 Shortlisted for: Provost Award at Kelvingrove Art Galleries & Museums 1995 Exhibition at: Connought Brown, London Exhibition at: Duncan Miller Fine Art, New York Exhibition at: Chicago Art Fair Exhibition at: Gagliardi Gallery 1994 Exhibition at: Connought Brown, London Exhibition at: Duncan Miller Fine Art, New York Exhibition at: Ruth O’Hara Gallery, New York 1993 Exhibition at: Art Bank, Glasgow Exhibition at: Connought Brown, London 1992 Exhibition at: Art Bank, Glasgow 1991 Exhibition at: Trinity Gallery, London Exhibition at: Poleski Gallery, Italy 1990 BA Honours: Painting and Drawing, Glasgow School of Art

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The images contained within this literature are an artistic representation of the collection.

To best experience our art, we recommend you contact your local gallery to arrange a viewing. Š Washington Green 2014. The content of this brochure is subject to copyright and no part can be reproduced without prior permission. washingtongreen.co.uk