By Lookout Staff

August 30, 2016 -- The work of artist John E. Miller, whose paintings use repeated marks to create optically hypnotic effects, is the subject of an exhibition at the Santa Monica College Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery.

After abandoning figurative painting in the early 1970s, Miller has spent the past four decades creating works that feature "angled, colored bars repeated across the canvas," organizers said. Art critic Richard Armstrong has described Miller's work as a “codified mélange of grave and acute accents” that “represents a sustained effort at devising a truly modern painting, and one that, before it is anything else, can be seen to be marks on a flat surface.”

The talk, which will take place in The Edye adjacent to the gallery, is sponsored by the SMC Associates (www.smc.edu/associates). Seating is strictly on a first-arrival basis.

Miller, who lives and works in Los Angeles, has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions, as well as group exhibitions at museums that include The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Getty Center. It is also included in permanent collections across the nation.

SMC's Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery is located at the SMC Performing Arts Center on Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street, Santa Monica. Due to construction in progress, the entrance is from 11th Street.

Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, call (310) 434-3434.