Harland Miller York

Harland Miller is a British artist and novelist, born in 1964, in Yorkshire, England. He is best known for his satirical paintings of re-imagined Penguin classics, often with his invented sardonic titles. He takes artistic influence from Ed Ruscha, Anselm Kiefer and Robert Rauschenberg and cites Mark Rothko as one of his favorite artists. He attended the Chelsea College of Art, in London, from where he received his BA and MA degrees, after which he traveled extensively, living in New York, New Orleans, Paris and Berlin. Miller first achieved critical acclaim with his writing. His debut novel, Slow down Arthur, Stick to Thirty (2000), featured a kid who travels around northern England, with a David Bowie impersonator. In the same year, Miller published the novella, First I was Afraid, I was Petrified, based on the true story of a female relative with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In 2001, Miller produced the first of a series of paintings, based on the dust jackets of old Penguin books. He was struck by the visceral nostalgia that the book covers, rather than their contents, evoked.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.