Internationally acclaimed artist and writer Harland Miller has returned to his roots with a new exhibition ‘XXX’ at York Art Gallery which showcases work from his renowned ‘Letter Paintings’ series.

By Mark Bowness

For an artist who has no qualms about emblazoning various four-letter words across his paintings, Harland Miller is surprisingly softly-spoken and understated in the rare interviews he gives.

Harland Miller, 2019, courtesy of White Cube (Ollie Hammick)

Usually speaking with his customary cigarette dangling from his mouth, the Yorkshire artist comes across as unassuming, thoughtful, and articulate, speaking with a rare eloquence about his affinity for words, images, and colour.

Now, five years after an ill-fated exhibition in his home city of York, which was cancelled due to the pandemic, he’s back bigger and brighter than ever with a series of new works at York Art Gallery.

York, 2025 © Harland Miller. Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis)

Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and ’90s, Miller has carved out a successful career creating colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities.

Miller, whose style is reminiscent of Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement, says it is his northern roots that has inspired so much of his work. He made a name for himself with his brilliant series of Penguin book covers which feature titles like Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore and Death What’s In It For Me.

Talking about his return to the city where he was born, Miller said: “It’s great to be coming back to York again with this new show. Five years ago we opened the exhibition ‘York, So Good They Named it Once’, so it’s kind of appropriate in some sense to be doing it once more… but this time with an entirely new body of work which has never been seen anywhere all together before, so it’s very exciting.

If, 2022 © Harland Miller. Photo © White Cube (David Westwood)

“This show is entitled ‘XXX’ but it doesn’t flout any indecency laws so it should stay open longer than the last one, which should have run for six months but closed after only a few weeks due to lockdown, so I never did find out what being given the keys to the city actually unlocked. But York is a city of perpetual mystery and history, including my own, and it always draws me back and so It’s especially exciting to be sharing this with everyone – not once, but twice.”     

He added: “There’s a humour and a stoicism in the North of England that you don’t get anywhere else and while I have nothing but fondness for the place I grew up, the 70s were an odd time up here.

“The Yorkshire Ripper cast a shadow over the whole place and because of the powercuts which became just another fact of life, it was a decade which was quite literally dark.

“As a kid I don’t think it ever struck me why, instead of watching telly, I was suddenly playing Monopoly by candle light with my family. You just got on with it, but now I look back, those board games are the only thing I remember us doing together as a family.

“I’ve not lived in the place I grew up in for many, many years, so it’s a real honour to return to my home city and show my work at York Art Gallery.

Harland Miller at York Art Gallery. Courtesy of York Museums Trust

“I think it is true of most artists, that whatever success they’ve achieved in the wider world, the significance of having that recognised in their hometown or city is totally unique. There is both a historical and emotional context which simply isn’t present and cannot be manufactured for any other exhibition.”

After graduating from Chelsea School of Art with an MA in 1988, Miller travelled extensively throughout Europe and the United States, with spells in major cities like Paris, Berlin, New Orleans, and New York.

This transient lifestyle exposed him to a number of different artists, styles, and techniques, and allowed him to delve further into explorations of Pop Art and Colour Field painting.

Despite being so well-travelled, Miller repeatedly returns to the idea of home in his paintings and in a short film to advertise the forthcoming exhibition, he mused about people’s relationships with the place where they grew up.

He said: “I think for the majority of people, they probably have a love-hate relationship with their hometown, and I think I do too. But just without the hate.”

Star, 2024 © Harland Miller. Photo © White Cube (David Westwood)

Miller’s latest exhibition coincides with the release of a book of the same title by Phaidon and ‘XXX’ will showcase Miller’s striking hard-edged ‘Letter Paintings’ series and feature new works by the artist, one of which celebrates the city of York.

Inspired by medieval manuscripts, where monks often laboured to produce intricate illuminated letters to mark the beginning of chapters, Miller’s ‘Letter Paintings’ seamlessly meld the sacred with the everyday. In these works, the artist uses bold colours and typefaces to accentuate the expressive versatility of words, such as ‘If’ and ‘Star’.

Oh No, 2024 © Harland Miller. Photo © White Cube (David Westwood)

Dr Beatrice Bertram, Senior Curator at York Art Gallery, says: “We are delighted to welcome Harland back to the Gallery and his home city to show this extraordinary exhibition. The displays here in York explore his celebrated series of ‘Letter Paintings’, brought together for the first time alongside new work created exclusively for our exhibition.”

‘Harland Miller: XXX’ runs until 31 August 2025 at York Art Gallery. yorkartgallery.org.uk