SAVE THE DATE

HERE COMES THE BRIDE And other nightmares

By Freyda Miller

SOLO SHOW

June 5^th – June 28^th, 2015

Opening VIP and Members Reception:

Thursday, June 4^th, 6-8pm

Open to the public Friday June 5^th noon until 9pm for Friday Night Liberty

You can also meet the artist, Freyda Miller, Friday June 5th from 6-9pm

Women’s Museum of California

NTC PROMENADE at LIBERTY STATION

2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Suite 103

San Diego, CA 92106

Phone: (619) 233-7963

http://womensmuseumca.org/

info@womensmuseumca.org

A collection of provocative, emotional and dream-like photographic images compiled from the works of artist Freyda Miller, Here comes the Bride and other Nightmares uses images juxtaposed with quotes from historical and literary figures to examine the personal, social, political, spiritual and materialistic aspects of marriage. Miller’s work reflects the roles women play in society, highlighting unreal expectation, fairytale beliefs and surrounding myths, guiding us beyond the passive façade of the bride to the storm that simmers just beneath the surface.

Art Critic Shana Nys Dambrot writes about Freyda Miller’s work, “Miller is drawn to objects possessing a quality of evocative and poetic significance, so that the personal and the universal mingle as she articulates and refines her visual language. While the images are often quite beautiful they are also frequently dark, mysterious, and iconoclastic. This reflects Miller’s perennial impulse to render an element of the amiss, to assert that things are not always what they seem. It becomes clear that although the nuptial ceremonial and ritual iconography is overt and recognizable, the Bride as she appears here is a symbol for a fuller range of female consciousness. The true strength of this book is reflective of how far women have come, yet profoundly expressive of women’s veiled turmoil, conflict and continued struggle for equality.”

Supported by the County Board of Supervisors and the San Diego Commission for the Arts

“Spanning 35 years of Freyda Miller‘s photography career, this wry and elegant book employs a wide range of styles, aesthetics and narrative strategies in its camera work. In her images, one finds models as well as set-pieces, candid portraiture and the introduction of the emotionally charged props and tableaux that would eventually blossom into her assemblage practice. Moreover, her process in putting this book together as a singular object in itself — pulling together a multifaceted story out of disparate elements — manifests the same aesthetic impulse to combine and reconfigure materials into a larger, complex but cohesive, holistic vision. Read more” ~Shana Nys Dambrot, Art Critic

“Freyda Miller’s journey in art reflects a personal narrative that also captures the layers and conflicting dualities of women’s realities as they attempt to satisfy the stereotypes and myths of marriage and motherhood. The women seem staged, are faceless, perhaps voiceless, static and objectified like props placed in scenarios that serve to bolster the image of marriage. The painterly quality of her photography derives from her subtle hand tinting. The prolific use of veils creates an impressionist mist-like quality that literally thinly veils their nakedness and vulnerability. Aprons, perhaps also a metaphor for domesticity, are on clotheslines held in place by clothespins. They blow in the wind but cannot escape. Overall, Miller has succeeded in managing an extremely complex task of integrating dualities without compromising her art or narrative.” ~Faye Margolis, Ph.D

“Miller’s oeuvre has a significant place in the trajectory of art history.  She recalls the historical and brings forward a unique personal body of work.  As a Postmodernist, she invents her subjects, fabricates them, arranges, changes and stages.  She is an artist who is well aware of history and has acknowledged that in “Here Comes the Bride and Other Nightmares.” ~Karen Schifman, Art Historian