Matthew Miller wants to show you how he creates such vibrant, almost Rembrant-like portraits. At the Pocket Utopia gallery (1037 Flushing Avenue), six of Miller’s paintings, most of them self-portraits, are accompanied by dozens of three-foot-high sketches. Some of them look almost like cartoon storyboards with Chinese characters, or initial blocking for future portraits, but most of them are their own images.
“I don’t really keep a sketch pad as much as I used to,” Miller said. “They’re more general and immediate in a way than the portraits. I wanted to keep the immediacy and graphic severity of these portraits.
Miller, who recently graduated from the New York Academy of Art and has been Pocket Utopia’s artist in residence this summer, explained that his sketches were more reflections on the history of drawing rather than depictions of expressive brush strokes. The sketches, in a way, have helped him develop the depth and tonality of his self-portraits, which he paints by looking at his reflection in the mirror over several days.
“I spend a lot more time thinking about what it might look like, keeping it as suggestive as possible and have more emblematic moments,” Miller said.
Miller’s work will be on display at Pocket Utopia on 1057 Flushing Avenue through September 7. For more information, visit www.pocketutopia.com.
