Miller’s work is always defined by a certain effortlessness at crossing the cerebral with the visual. In this, he is more motivated by his subject matter than any one particular mode of expression or conceptual framework. The result is that it’s never easy to recognize when we’re looking at a John Miller work; his free-ranging style includes both Duane Hanson-esque statues of heroes of consumerism (Now We’re Big Potatoes, 1992) and Dieter Roth-ian excess, as in his 1994 Topology for a Museum, six pedestals holding up pukelike mounds of sculpted grimy excess, with children’s toys and Pepsi cans occasionally emerging from the muck. It all depends on what idea he is captivated by at any given moment, and following those captivations becomes the adventure of following John Miller’s work.

My review of John Miller in Cologne, at Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art.