James Miles

Statement

James Miles was born in 1957 in San Francisco, California. He began creating art at Creativity Explored in 1997.

Miles is best known for his ink drawings of miniature scenes. His tight and controlled lines illuminate the essential particulars of the buildings, cars, and figures that populate his drawings. His drawings often employ unusually combined perspectives, and viewers get the sense that they have been invited to witness the details that Miles observes and imagines in the world around him. His iconic style is complemented by the use of slightly mysterious repeated symbols. Three girls chatting, a group of musicians, and an airplane are some of images that are recurrent in his artwork.

Creativity Explored is a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities, create, exhibit, and sell art. We are committed to supporting people with developmental disabilities to become working artists, and to promoting their work as an emerging and increasingly important contribution to the professional art world. Creativity Explored provides workspace and materials in ongoing studio sessions facilitated by a team of professional artists who provide support and assistance to studio artists. Creativity Explored also operates a professional exhibitions program that promotes our studio artists’ work to a wide array of local, regional, national, and international exhibition venues including commercial galleries, and corporate and public spaces.

Creativity Explored studio artists come from diverse backgrounds and bring with them a wide variety and range of experience, ability, and sensibilities. Some of our artists just turned twenty years old, while others are in their eighties. Some have lived lives of previous isolation or institutionalization, while others have lived their entire lives with their families in a supportive and accepting environment. Many of our studio artists speak different languages, or do not speak, and are unable to communicate with each other using spoken language. At Creativity Explored, visual art is language everyone can use to share culture, experience, and feelings.

James Miles is represented by Creativity Explored. At Creativity Explored, uncensored self-expression is both encouraged and celebrated. The result is art that is fresh, exciting, and innovative. We invite you to share our collective experience, to participate in our community, and to benefit from the significant contributions made by artists with disabilities to the cultural life of the broader community. Our common thread is the basic need to express self, and the tapestry we weave using art is a strong, durable community rich in color, form, and context. We invite you to become a part of our community.

CV

Selected Exhibitions

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2009
o Songs From The Treetops, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
o Legend: Myth and Memory, Creativity Explored
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2008
o Tasty, Creativity Explored
o one of these does not belong, Adobe Books, San Francisco
o INsects INsectos, Creativity Explored
o Quarter Century, Creativity Explored
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2007
o Miles in the Sky, solo show, Creativity Explored
o AccessAbility, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito, CA
o Naked, Creativity Explored
o SF Notables Portrait Auction, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
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2006
o Outsider Art Fair, New York City
o SF Notables Portrait Auction, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
o XTown2ne, curated by Jack Fischer, NIAD Art Center, Richmond, CA
o The Beat Goes On, Creativity Explored
o Nature Rules, Creativity Explored
o Orbit, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco
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2005
o Outsider Art Fair, New York City
o Aliens: The Green Ones, Creativity Explored
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2004
o Outsider Art Fair, New York City
o Radiant Spaces: Private Domain, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA
o This Container Isn’t Big Enough, Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Harrell Fletcher in collaboration with the Whitney Biennial
o You Are Here, Creativity Explored
o Functionable, Creativity Explored
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2003
o Hello There Friend, Christine Burgin Gallery, New York City
o Lit, Creativity Explored
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2001
o Created in California, Berenberg Gallery, Boston
o Works on Wood, Creativity Explored
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1999
o Whippersnapper Nerd, Bronwyn Keenan, New York City
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1998
o Whippersnapper Nerd, Mark Moore, Los Angeles
o Whippersnapper Nerd, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
o Galerie Atelier Herrenplaats, Rotterdam
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1997
o Tanpopo-No Ye Gallery, Nara, Japan

Publications

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2007
o “James F. Miles Is A Boyfriend And A Girlfriend” with Harrell Fletcher, August 2007, Gallery 16, 1 Artist 1 Concept Series
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2006
o “Philanthroscope” illustrations, Benefit Magazine, Sept/Oct 2006 ongoing
o “A Small Sampling from the Collection”, curated by Harrell Fletcher, Art on Paper, July/Aug, Volume 10, No. 6
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2004
o “Radiant Spaces: Private Domain”, Smart Art Press
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2002
o “We Are All a Part of the Universe”, collaboration with Harrell Fletcher
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1998
o “Whippersnapper Nerd”, publishers Harrell Fletcher and Elizabeth Meyer