Exhibition Description
Discreet Vulgarities
Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller
Sept 11 – Oct 10
Simone DeSousa Gallery is pleased to present our first exhibition with artists Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. In Discreet Vulgarities Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller’s new works walk a thin line between the grotesque and the humorous, incorporating common elements and images such as 2″ x 4″ studs, pieces of plywood, mess-ups and fragments of the body. The new exhibit, including paintings, photographs, sculptures and video, also references situations of the everyday, social taboos, and “purpose.”
Extending through both gallery spaces, with no definition of a specific space for each artist, the exhibit will also present issues of authorization by blurring the collaborative and non-collaborative. Can two artist that work and live together ever make anything that is completely of that one individual?
Adam Lee Miller paints bold, restrained, hard-edge paintings of obstructions, cover-ups, holes and spills that may not be so accidental. While the work is largely hard-edged, Miller also welcomes chance through layering other techniques such as silkscreen, airbrush, faux boise, and stencil, in paintings that are purposely in conversation with the history of painting.
Nicola Kuperus shoots images that take on an almost performative quality, yet there is no performance. Kuperus also creates sculptural video works which reside inside peephole plywood boxes, inviting the viewer to submit to uncomfortable positions to experience the works through the strategically located openings.
Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller are both graduates from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit. They formed the band ADULT. in 1997. They have released 5 full length albums and toured the world multiple times, including Moscow, Bogotá and São Paulo. Between 2008 -2010 they (very) independently made a 100 minute film entitled “The Three Grace(s) Triptych” that has screened at the Anthology Film Archives (NY), the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Silent Movie Theater (LA), and film festivals in Mexico City, Chicago and Toronto. They have participated in two residencies together at SOMA Artist Residency (Mexico City) and C.A.J. Artist Residency (Saitama, Japan). They have exhibited work at Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), Center Galleries (Detroit), and Dlectricity (Detroit). In 2013, they won a Knight Arts Challenge award entitled “Detroit House Guests” in which they turn their home into a artist residency for musicians where they collaborate on music for their next album. They currently have a video installation on exhibit at Lille3000 Renassaince (Lille, France). Individually, Adam Lee Miller has recently been included in several group exhibitions, including theCranbrook Art Museum (West Bloomfield, MI), Museum of Modern Art Saitama (Saitama, Japan), and Chicago Arts Coalition. Nicola Kuperus has recently exhibited at Center Gallery (Wolfsburg, Germany), Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI), and Centre d’Art Contemporain de Meymac (Meymac, France).