Sean Owen Miller is an American transdisciplinary artist best known for collaborative works that merge the roles of artist, curator, and collector. His projects use social engagement, experimental exhibition formats, and speculative design strategies to communicate with audiences of interest. Miller’s work examines how historical events, collective action, institutional frameworks, and scientific knowledge combine to shape notions of reality and cultural identity. Miller utilizes design, drawing, performance, photography, science, sculpture, storytelling, and site-specific elements to realize his projects. His practice seeks to raise awareness, empathy, and wellness in the individual and the natural world. The concept of the archive or cabinet of wonder is an organizing principle for many of his projects.
Miller’s selected awards and residencies include: National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Award (Co-PI), Project Grant from the National Sculpture Factory of Ireland, University of Florida’s Creative Campus Catalyst Fund, and University of Florida Center for European Studies Travel Grant. Selected residency awards include: Emily Harvey Foundation Venice Residency, Sirius Art Centre Residency (Ireland), Flax Arts Studios Residency (U.K.), and Nelimarkka Museum (Finland). Miller is a co-founder of SOIL artist-run space/collective (Seattle, Washington), founder/director of John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA), a location-variable museum, and a co-founder of Crude Life Portable Biodiversity Museum (with Brandon Ballengee).
Miller's selected exhibitions, screenings, and performances include: FLUXUS 1962-2022: Sixty Years in Flux, Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Genoa, Italy), Stupendo Gallery, Spazio Unimedia, and Palace Ducale (Genoa, Italy), The Exquisite Moving Corpse and other Collaborations, Archivio Emiy Harvey, Venice, Italy and Scope Art Show (Miami), 88: Philip Corner, Jack Massing, Sean Miller, and Friends, Spazio Unimedia (Genoa, Italy), Drifting Cabinets: A Portable Collection of Gulf Biodiversity, Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando, FL), Crude Life: Portable Museum for Gulf Biodiversity, National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Annual Conference Exhibition, John Erickson Museum of Art: Eleven-Year Retrospective, Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, John Erickson Museum of Art (various exhibitions): Deitch Projects Art Parade (NYC), ACC Galerie (Weimar), National Museum of Ireland (Dublin), Spazio Utopia (Campagna, Italy), Spazio Unimedia (Genoa, Italy), Museo Raccolte Frugone (Genoa, Italy), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Contemporary Museum (Baltimore), Aqua Art Fair (Miami Beach), Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast, N. Ireland), and Catalyst Arts (Belfast, N. Ireland), and Theseus Wants His Boat Back, Werkstadt Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
Other exhibition venues include: Arcane Space (Tbilisi, Georgia), Arnolfini Art Centre (Bristol, U.K.), Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (Athens, GA), UICA (Michigan), CoCA (Seattle), COCA (St. Louis), Post Gallery (Los Angeles), Howard House Gallery (Seattle), Saltworks (Atlanta), Roq La Rue Gallery (Seattle), Blackrock Castle Observatory (Cork, Ireland), Limerick City Gallery (Limerick, Ireland), Microscope Gallery (NYC), Pallas Projects (Dublin, Ireland), Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (L.A., California), Quint Gallery (San Diego), Museum of Art and History (Santa Cruz, CA), Signal Art Centre (Bray, Ireland), UnimediaModern Contemporary Art (Genoa, Italy), Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (Gainesville, FL), and HorseHead Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in (Seattle and Belfast, N. Ireland).
Selected coverage of Miller’s work includes: Art Papers, Art Districts, Burnaway, CBS, New York Times, The Nation, New Art Examiner, Sculpture Magazine, RTÉ, Irish Examiner, Baltimore Sun, Issues magazine, LA Weekly, Houston Chronicle, Modern Art Notes, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Qantas, Miami New Times, Daytona Beach News-Journal, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, USA Today, ArtStar, Dish Network (2008), Oddities (Science Channel) Season 2, NVTV, Northern Visions Media Centre, April 21, 2008. “How to Start Your Own Country” (2009) Documentary by Jodi Shapiro.
Sean Owen Miller is based in Gainesville, Florida where he teaches Sculpture, Art/Sci courses, and the Workshop for Art Research and Practice at University of Florida. More of Miller's work:
John Erickson Museum of Art http://www.jema.us
Dream Registry http://dreamregistry.net/wordpress/
UF Faculty Page https://arts.ufl.edu/directory/profile/2017