Shelter Island’s Newest Gallery, dieFirma: Summer Of Activity!

“Bill Miller will be working on-site to share his work and his process, offering viewers a rich and layered experience throughout his residency,” shares dieFirma’s Founding Director, Andrea Stern. “This intimate engagement with the artist is consistent with our mission to create a dynamic exchange between artist and viewer, bringing them closer together.”

Bill Miller: In the Garden opens July 21st. The show features Miller’s latest body of work, where he cuts and collages vintage linoleum, transforming the material into complex arrangements while highlighting its nostalgic legacy.

Adjacent to Miller’s work will be an installation of sculptures made in her North Fork studio by the late Gloria Kisch. The Bells, a series of large scale mobile-like sculptures, evoke religious totems, modernist sculptures, and the visual language of industrial manufacturing in equal measure. With Flowers, Kisch rendered natural forms whimsically using colorfully painted steel. Most are designed to be mounted on the wall, appearing like paintings growing out towards the viewer.

A highlight of dieFirma’s summer offerings is a series of hands-on workshops with Miller. Participants will be led in the artist’s signature style of collage. Each attendee will explore the artist’s archive of material and create their custom assemblage to take home.

“Linoleum holds a history of people’s lives that we can tap into,” says Miller. “Returning to dieFirma and getting the chance to not only exhibit my work but interact with the public through talks and workshops allows for a greater exploration of that history between the material and the viewer. I’m thrilled to see how the public reinterprets my work into their own during the workshops.”

Summer programming includes a series of talks between Miller and members from the creative community, in addition to onsite Q&A’s with Miller, workshops, and viewings of the exhibition where the artist will be available to guide guests through the exhibit and his process.

dieFirma’s grounds are available to the public to freely explore Bill Miller: In the Garden, as well as an exhibition of works by Gloria Kisch. Additional offerings include guided tours to a nearby sculpture garden in Flanders, where a permanent collection of works by Kisch is on display.