Brittany Miller, Saint Radio
Brittany Miller’s paintings borrow visual language from Christian art history, incorporating archetypes of the martyr, savior, and saint. In her work, figures are encountering the supernatural–levitations, messages from elsewhere, and visits from otherworldly beings, while the vibrational quality of her line-work encourages the viewer to have a transcendental experience of their own.
The Catholic priest and scholar Thomas Berry spoke about how many of us have lost a "functional cosmology" that connects us to each other, to the natural world, and to the universe. With the loss of this functional cosmology, we have shifted our sensitivity, our ability to pay attention to the world, and to be present both to each other and to ourselves. Without a purpose, we feel lonely and isolated. Taking into account Berry's cosmological notion, Miller explores the idea of artists and poets as conduits for information from "the other world," positioning them as vulnerable, open receivers seeking a deeper understanding of our existence.
Drawing on her upbringing in a fundamentalist Christian family, her paintings interweave symbols and poses from medieval, Dutch and Renaissance art with contemporary domestic scenes, showing solitary figures in moments of transcendence. The series “Saint Radio,” showcased for the first time at T293, revolve around an intimate collaboration between the artist and New York City-based poets—Courtney Bush, Jameson Fitzpatrick, and Marie Howe—who are depicted as embodiment of cosmological frameworks, but placed in scenes from contemporary domestic life.
One of the personalities that has most inspired Brittany's work is her close friend Courtney Bush, winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. Courtney's book, "I Love Information," serves as a significant influence, borrowing religious themes to illustrate how children embody attention and care, offering us guidance for navigating the world. In her upcoming book, "The Lamb With The Talking Scroll," she investigates the symbolism of the lamb as both martyr and messenger of information. Fragments of poetry from "The Lamb With The Talking Scroll" appear throughout the paintings.
In addition, poets Jameson Fitzpatrick and Marie Howe, whose work similarly incorporates biblical narratives to explore spiritual dimensions in daily life, play pivotal roles in the artist's narration, reflecting a convergence of shared experiences and influences within their creative circle. Pieces of Jameson’s poetry come into Miller’s work, while Marie Howe's use of Biblical figures like Magdalene and Eve in her poems serves as an influence over the entirety of the show.
Brittany Miller (born 1990), lives and works in New York City. She received an MS from Pratt Institute and an MA from Columbia University. She has had solo exhibitions with Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2023); and Thierry Goldberg, New York (2022).
The Catholic priest and scholar Thomas Berry spoke about how many of us have lost a "functional cosmology" that connects us to each other, to the natural world, and to the universe. With the loss of this functional cosmology, we have shifted our sensitivity, our ability to pay attention to the world, and to be present both to each other and to ourselves. Without a purpose, we feel lonely and isolated. Taking into account Berry's cosmological notion, Miller explores the idea of artists and poets as conduits for information from "the other world," positioning them as vulnerable, open receivers seeking a deeper understanding of our existence.
Drawing on her upbringing in a fundamentalist Christian family, her paintings interweave symbols and poses from medieval, Dutch and Renaissance art with contemporary domestic scenes, showing solitary figures in moments of transcendence. The series “Saint Radio,” showcased for the first time at T293, revolve around an intimate collaboration between the artist and New York City-based poets—Courtney Bush, Jameson Fitzpatrick, and Marie Howe—who are depicted as embodiment of cosmological frameworks, but placed in scenes from contemporary domestic life.
One of the personalities that has most inspired Brittany's work is her close friend Courtney Bush, winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. Courtney's book, "I Love Information," serves as a significant influence, borrowing religious themes to illustrate how children embody attention and care, offering us guidance for navigating the world. In her upcoming book, "The Lamb With The Talking Scroll," she investigates the symbolism of the lamb as both martyr and messenger of information. Fragments of poetry from "The Lamb With The Talking Scroll" appear throughout the paintings.
In addition, poets Jameson Fitzpatrick and Marie Howe, whose work similarly incorporates biblical narratives to explore spiritual dimensions in daily life, play pivotal roles in the artist's narration, reflecting a convergence of shared experiences and influences within their creative circle. Pieces of Jameson’s poetry come into Miller’s work, while Marie Howe's use of Biblical figures like Magdalene and Eve in her poems serves as an influence over the entirety of the show.
Brittany Miller (born 1990), lives and works in New York City. She received an MS from Pratt Institute and an MA from Columbia University. She has had solo exhibitions with Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2023); and Thierry Goldberg, New York (2022).
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
152.4 × 183 cm (60 × 72 inches)
"In this painting, Courtney Bush is posed as Saint Sebastian from the painting St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima by Ludovico Carracci. The image of Saint Sebastian is a seductive one—a body passively receiving violence. In paintings of Saint Sebastian he is depicted as having enemies, being physically vulnerable, facing rejection. He is laid bare in a way that can also symbolize being under psychological siege by the external world. I was also considering Louise Bourgeois’s works where she has created a mythical female figure of Saint Sebastian. The text in the book is the title of Courtney’s book of poems (in-progress), The Lamb With The Talking Scroll." - Brittany Miller
The Lamb With The Talking Scroll
2023oil on canvas
152.4 × 183 cm (60 × 72 inches)
"In this painting, Courtney Bush is posed as Saint Sebastian from the painting St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima by Ludovico Carracci. The image of Saint Sebastian is a seductive one—a body passively receiving violence. In paintings of Saint Sebastian he is depicted as having enemies, being physically vulnerable, facing rejection. He is laid bare in a way that can also symbolize being under psychological siege by the external world. I was also considering Louise Bourgeois’s works where she has created a mythical female figure of Saint Sebastian. The text in the book is the title of Courtney’s book of poems (in-progress), The Lamb With The Talking Scroll." - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
152.4 × 122 cm (60 × 48 inches)
"The pose in this painting is borrowed from the image of Christ in Cecco del Caravaggio’s The Resurrection. In order to cement the image as a domestic scene, I substituted a pillow in place of a cloud. The text on the wall is a line from Courtney’s poem, Physics with Rilke: The Life of Mary, which reads, 'Saviors should be mined from the hard material of the mountains'." - Brittany Miller
Beacon
2023oil on canvas
152.4 × 122 cm (60 × 48 inches)
"The pose in this painting is borrowed from the image of Christ in Cecco del Caravaggio’s The Resurrection. In order to cement the image as a domestic scene, I substituted a pillow in place of a cloud. The text on the wall is a line from Courtney’s poem, Physics with Rilke: The Life of Mary, which reads, 'Saviors should be mined from the hard material of the mountains'." - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
152.4 × 183 cm (60 × 72 inches)
"The reference for this painting is The Conversion of St. Paul by Benozzo Gozzoli. The text in the book is also from Courtney’s poem, The Fourth Talking Scroll, and this section reads: 'the night Gabriel lost her/ baby the angels blew two/ trumpets the other angels/ screamed their chants into the caves whose echoes held together/ and collapsed into songs more and more songs dirges ballads requiem two-step aubade/ the kind from the radio/ til someday you find one song one real song and in the song will be a grail a real grail'. " - Brittany Miller
Transmission
2024oil on canvas
152.4 × 183 cm (60 × 72 inches)
"The reference for this painting is The Conversion of St. Paul by Benozzo Gozzoli. The text in the book is also from Courtney’s poem, The Fourth Talking Scroll, and this section reads: 'the night Gabriel lost her/ baby the angels blew two/ trumpets the other angels/ screamed their chants into the caves whose echoes held together/ and collapsed into songs more and more songs dirges ballads requiem two-step aubade/ the kind from the radio/ til someday you find one song one real song and in the song will be a grail a real grail'. " - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"The title of the painting comes from the name for a communion with Christ in the form of a marriage, a “mystical marriage.” One visual reference is the series of paintings of Saint Catherine of Siena by Giovanni di Paolo, one of which depicts Saint Catherine’s union with Christ. Courtney Bush is posed as Saint Catherine, and Marie Howe is posed as Tintoretto’s Penitent Magdalene. This union is a transformational one, and here I depicted Courtney Bush receiving knowledge from her poet-hero, Marie Howe." - Brittany Miller
The Mystic Marriage
2024oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"The title of the painting comes from the name for a communion with Christ in the form of a marriage, a “mystical marriage.” One visual reference is the series of paintings of Saint Catherine of Siena by Giovanni di Paolo, one of which depicts Saint Catherine’s union with Christ. Courtney Bush is posed as Saint Catherine, and Marie Howe is posed as Tintoretto’s Penitent Magdalene. This union is a transformational one, and here I depicted Courtney Bush receiving knowledge from her poet-hero, Marie Howe." - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"I again used a Christ pose, this time from The Resurrection by Anthony van Dyck. I had Courtney adapt this pose into a reclining position in her bed. The text is from a line in Courtney’s poem, The Fourth Talking Scroll, and this section reads: 'two of us may be nothing/ alike I am nothing like/ the messenger who carries/ me I’m composed of sound while she is a lamb she can do/ so much but she can never/ be the message as you can never be the messages/but receive and transmit them'. " - Brittany Miller
Messenger
2024oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"I again used a Christ pose, this time from The Resurrection by Anthony van Dyck. I had Courtney adapt this pose into a reclining position in her bed. The text is from a line in Courtney’s poem, The Fourth Talking Scroll, and this section reads: 'two of us may be nothing/ alike I am nothing like/ the messenger who carries/ me I’m composed of sound while she is a lamb she can do/ so much but she can never/ be the message as you can never be the messages/but receive and transmit them'. " - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"As the title points to, I wanted to make an Annunciation scene with both Courtney Bush and Jameson Fitzpatrick, sitting on a couch in a living room, waiting to receive a message. Annunciate means to announce, proclaim, trumpet, declare—a forceful transmission of information. The text in the book reads, “Saint Radio,” referring back to the mystical source of the message". - Brittany Miller
Annunciate
2024oil on canvas
101.5 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)
"As the title points to, I wanted to make an Annunciation scene with both Courtney Bush and Jameson Fitzpatrick, sitting on a couch in a living room, waiting to receive a message. Annunciate means to announce, proclaim, trumpet, declare—a forceful transmission of information. The text in the book reads, “Saint Radio,” referring back to the mystical source of the message". - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
152 × 101.5 cm (59 ⅞ × 40 inches)
"I put myself into this painting, and I wanted to make this big pile of books to magnify the idea that the book is one delivery system for information from the Other World. I painted grails on every page as a reference back to Jack Spicer, who has a book of poems called The Holy Grail. In an interview, Jack Spicer talks about the grail as a magical and elusive thing, a thing to be searched for. I also wanted to depict the Holy Grail because it is a significant object in Christian mythology—the cup that Christ bled into—intertwined with the story of the Holy Chalice from Christ’s Last Supper. Finally, the Holy Grail is a vessel, a receiving-thing, in the same way that the poets and saints are receivers of information." - Brittany Miller
Holy Grail
2024oil on canvas
152 × 101.5 cm (59 ⅞ × 40 inches)
"I put myself into this painting, and I wanted to make this big pile of books to magnify the idea that the book is one delivery system for information from the Other World. I painted grails on every page as a reference back to Jack Spicer, who has a book of poems called The Holy Grail. In an interview, Jack Spicer talks about the grail as a magical and elusive thing, a thing to be searched for. I also wanted to depict the Holy Grail because it is a significant object in Christian mythology—the cup that Christ bled into—intertwined with the story of the Holy Chalice from Christ’s Last Supper. Finally, the Holy Grail is a vessel, a receiving-thing, in the same way that the poets and saints are receivers of information." - Brittany Miller
Brittany Miller
oil on canvas
122 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 inches)
"Jameson Fitzpatrick is the figure in this painting. One image I was thinking about is an illustration in an article by Carl Jung in the New York Times from March 25, 1978 titled, 'Flying Saucers Perhaps a ’99 Percent Psychic Product',' which talks about some of the ideas in his book, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. The UFO shape at the top of the painting also draws from celestial objects that appear in Medieval and Renaissance religious paintings like Aert de Gelder’s Baptism of Christ. (I repeated this UFO shape in Transmission and Holy Grail.) The text in the book is from Jameson’s poem, Chorine, and reads, 'Elsewhere the angels I am sing.' The title comes from a letter from Jack Spicer in which he writes, 'Poems should echo and reecho against each other. They should create resonances'.” -Brittany Miller
Eccho Reecho
2024oil on canvas
122 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 inches)
"Jameson Fitzpatrick is the figure in this painting. One image I was thinking about is an illustration in an article by Carl Jung in the New York Times from March 25, 1978 titled, 'Flying Saucers Perhaps a ’99 Percent Psychic Product',' which talks about some of the ideas in his book, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. The UFO shape at the top of the painting also draws from celestial objects that appear in Medieval and Renaissance religious paintings like Aert de Gelder’s Baptism of Christ. (I repeated this UFO shape in Transmission and Holy Grail.) The text in the book is from Jameson’s poem, Chorine, and reads, 'Elsewhere the angels I am sing.' The title comes from a letter from Jack Spicer in which he writes, 'Poems should echo and reecho against each other. They should create resonances'.” -Brittany Miller
Tuning
2024Oil on canvas
101.6 × 122 cm (40 × 48 inches)