Napa Valley Museum Yountville Announces the Opening of 'Chris Miller: Confluence'

The Napa Valley Museum Yountville has announced the opening of a new exhibition of recent works by Napa Valley painter Chris Miller: "Confluence." The exhibit will be on display in the History Gallery from January 21, 2022 through March 20, 2022.

Consisting of abstract paintings of both large and small scale representing his most recent works, Miller explores the dialog between form, color, and texture to reveal the essential in our own experience. The result is a collection of works that is vibrant, explorational, and deeply personal.

A native Californian, Chris was born in Carmel and grew up in southern California. The San Fernando Valley was in its late transition from agriculture to suburb, and pockets of abandoned orchards were interspersed with emergent residential subdivisions. Those orchards and the nearby Santa Monica Mountains afforded access to the natural world, an expansive back yard and, as with many children, he was frequently absorbed in expressing experiences in crayon and colored pencil drawings, giving physical form to his imagination. He would also find inspiration and encouragement from his grandfather: animator and fantasist Walt Disney.

Pursuit of the arts accompanied Chris through high school and college (Fort Lewis College, CU Boulder, UC Santa Cruz), continued through adventures in the film and bicycle industries, and gained momentum over the past decade. After raising their two daughters in Telluride CO, Chris and his wife Catherine McNamee moved back to California, this time to Napa Valley's Soda Canyon where they have lived since 2012. Chris is the son of the late Ron and Diane Miller, founders of Silverado Vineyards and dedicated champions of the arts.

"This work, produced in 2021, results from the practice of observation and interpretation of the everyday, macro and micro, both summarizing and enhancing in turns encounters with the natural world. Steeped in moods, fragments of dreams, curiosity/obsession with a shape, breaking that apart or honoring it, sorting compositional elements to allow a flux in the order, intrigued by ambiguity, a sampling of a visual journal that drifts past conclusions, tending to inquire rather than answer." - Chris Miller

The exhibition will continue through March 20, 2022. An artist reception and celebration will be scheduled later in the run.

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