Special Interview with Navot Miller

conducted by Carolina Castilho

“My favorite colors are pink, blue and yellow. Although it shifts from one to another and it depends on the tone. I have a strawberry tattoo, a small one on my ankle. My best friend is a very special person I met at a house party shortly after moving to Berlin. We share this beautiful friendship, the exchange of knowledge, care, love, feedback, anger… It is never ending.”

How would you describe your work in one sentence?

Well, I can tell you three words: personal, biographical and intimate.

The use of color seems to be very significant in your paintings. Have you always painted this way?

I didn’t always paint, that’s the first thing. I don’t consider myself a painter, I only started painting with brushes and on canvas less than two years ago. Before that I drew with pastels on paper, and before I worked primarily with pencil on paper. You asked if my work was always colorful… I think as a person I am, and was from a young age, attracted to vibrancy, colorful objects. So that’s my interest, but then what do I consider my work? If I consider my portfolio for architecture school my work, that was mostly pencil on paper. But I think quite quickly my use of colors became more apparent and stronger in my work.

And how do you go about choosing the colors for each work?

Usually I sketch on the canvas with an oil pencil, so I draw the picture on the canvas. And then before I start to paint I write the colors of each shape. That is my preliminary plan, but it always changes, and as I start to paint it will shift. Maybe the yellow will become orange, for example. So the initial plan is not really precise, but at least I have some guidelines when I start to paint. And I do that because I work relatively quickly, so it’s not like I paint and then the oil dries, and then I paint again. While I’m painting the oil is still wet, so if I’m painting with white and the brush touches yellow, then it messes up the white. So I plan because I like to start painting from brighter colors to darker, so I always start my paintings with white. If I’m painting with yellow and the brush touches white, it’s not as dramatic as if the white touches yellow. It’s all learning by doing, really.

What is it about daily life and everyday scenes that attracts you?

I don’t think of my work as being very conceptual, I think it’s more organic in the sense that if I see something that I think is interesting enough for me to work with and maybe add to how I want to see things, I’ll use it. So often it will be a painting, or a video, or a text… Again, I’m not looking at myself as a painter per se. Right now I’m absolutely concentrating on painting, and even though I also like to make videos and I write sometimes, that is not something that is as public or as evident as my painting. I think working with everyday scenes is not necessarily a conscious decision, like “I want to work with everyday life scenes”, it’s more like “Oh, the way my friend is sitting on the window is interesting” or “Wow! I’m so mad at this friend, she is driving me so mad and I want to paint this”. I’m directing my thoughts and my feelings towards something, and painting is an extension of that. That is why I said I consider my work to be personal, because mostly my work is about things that have touched me, things that are associated with me.

How has your experience as an artist been so far when it comes to inclusivity? What issues and inequalities do you think the art world still struggles with?

Well, I haven’t experienced anything that made me think “Wait a minute… I am excluded because of some reason that might be a personal reason towards me or something”. Personally, I did not experience or encounter something like that, either from fellow artists or galleries, collectors, curators.

“I’m directing my thoughts and my feelings towards something, and painting is an extension of that. That is why I said I consider my work to be personal, because mostly my work is about things that have touched me, things that are associated with me.”

How do you feel the representation of queerness in art has changed over time? And what about in your own work?

Again, because my work is quite personal, it’s an extension of me. I’m not sitting around and thinking about what I am going to paint, or what is the reason behind this color or behind this object. I’m bringing to the table whoever I am, whatever is associated with me, whether it’s my background, my sexuality, my interest in architecture, … It’s not so much that I intentionally decide to show queerness in this or that way. In that sense I think I show queerness because as a gay person it comes naturally for me to show men together. And about how this has changed over time in art, I think we live in a world where things are possible that were not possible fifteen years ago, and we live in a time where to paint a dick being sucked by a man is not forbidden, for example. Tom of Finland’s work was forbidden until like the sixties or seventies, and so were many others. And I think now that it is not forbidden we are seeing more of it, and I think that’s brilliant.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?

Gut feeling. You know? When you’re about to do something or you’re about to make a decision, this feeling of “should I do this?”. I think it’s a mixture between not pushing, as in staying comfortable and confident and assertive, and being able to say no to things, even if they seem attractive for some reason (financial, PR, etc.). I think it goes back to how you organically feel about things. If I’m too stressed about a meeting with someone because I feel like that meeting was too aggressive or too pushy, these feelings count. Each of us knows ourselves the best. And I knew this before, but working with people and working more and more has polished that idea. Own your feelings and listen to them.

Do you have any advice for emerging artists who are starting their careers?

Think of people that you appreciate, that you think have something interesting to say, people that you love, that you think are authentic and honest and real. Think of such people and be close to them. I think we live in a world where there is so much inauthenticity, and we lie all the time in the way we live and communicate with others, and we’re all a part of this! There is something in Western society that is just not real, and then when you find someone that is honest and not trying to play a game… I think these people and these moments make life very meaningful and if you have someone that you think is valuable for whatever reason, keep them close, be with them, spend time with them.

Yeah, I would like my work to be honest, to extend my feelings, my emotions, and to speak to people not only for one reason but for it to be accessible to many people and for multiple reasons. I enjoy hearing what people see in my work, especially if it’s something not good. I appreciate negative feedback, obviously it needs to be communicated in a proper way, or in a way that I would be able to perceive, but I very much appreciate when someone comes up to me and says “I don’t understand” or “I would do it differently”. I enjoy feedback and criticism and dialogue. Again, I would like my work to be honest and to be how I would see things or I would like to see them, or how I saw them at a certain point.