Opening Reception - Rob Miller - Township and Range: Alberta's Crossroads
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The Gallery at Casa 230 8 Street, Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 5H2
Rob Miller, "Township and Range: Alberta's Crossroads," 2018
Reception: Saturday, April 28, 7:00pm
Recent Lethbridge transplant, Rob Miller, also refers directly to mapping in Township and Range with a series of skillful landscape paintings. Alberta has been mapped through a grid made up of intersecting township and range roads, and Miller has spent time journeying to these intersections and painting what he discovers there. There are no titles for the works, merely coordinates that point to a geographic location on a map.
Artist Statement:What’s in a name? When it comes to my paintings it’s a question that I have often asked myself. Like many other artists I have usually titled my landscape paintings based on the nearest town or city. However, It’s a process that I have never really enjoyed. On a few occasions, I have given paintings titles that were completely wrong. Even when I know the name is correct, I often find viewers are wanting much more accurate location details than I am able to provide. A few years ago while attending an opening for a group show, I was approached by an individual who was interested in a painting and wanted to know the exact location portrayed in the work. Although I was unusually well prepared, no answer I gave seemed satisfactory to him. Even if I could have provided him with the level of detail expected, most people who see the work won’t have the opportunity to speak to me in person. This led me to wonder if I could title a painting in such a way that would provide not only a precise location but also speak to that place’s history and culture.
It wasn’t until I moved back to Alberta that I believed I could make this idea work. Travelling the province, I was reminded of the Alberta Township System. When the prairies were surveyed using the Dominion Land Survey, a grid system made up of townships and ranges was created. This enabled every mile square section of land in the province to be located like a square on a checkerboard. Making your way through this rural network requires travelling on the appropriately named township and range roads.
Each painting in this series depicts a view from the junction of a township and range road, and is named as such. It is my hope that by adopting this very literal naming system, I can give much more meaning to my paintings than ever before. Alberta’s history, culture, and geography are all represented in the title of each painting. In addition, using such precise locations allows the viewer to pinpoint the exact place that is depicted.
Artist Bio:Rob Miller was born in Olds, Alberta and lived in both Brooks and Drayton Valley before graduating with a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2000. He can only assume that growing up in Alberta lead to an appreciation for the sky and wide open spaces. After living for several years in Kimberley and Duncan, British Columbia, he and his partner, Kathleen, moved back to their home province. They now call the city of Lethbridge home. In 2016, Miller started a new series of paintings based on the dominion land survey system that divides the province into a grid system of rural roads.
Rob Miller’s work has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions. His paintings can also be found in the collection of the Canada Council Art Bank as well as private collections in Alberta, British Columbia and the United States.