Zachary in Priest Guesthouse in Salzburg by Navot Miller
Miller (b.1991) focuses on intimate interactions and the queer aspects of banal, uneventful encounters. Throughout his life, Miller has always been fascinated by visuals and sound as a way of expressing ideas and exploring topics such as sexuality, religion and desire.
Using the practice of opposite and contrasting colors as a form of painting and the aesthetic of collaging short videos, Miller creates montages of scenes into both paper and videos while juxtaposing tragedy and positivity.
He pays close attention to the figurative form of objects he considers as a muse and to the sense of space created by multiple layers in a single place.
Primarily working with water based color, Miller engages with flatness as a way to create senses of still drama in his works.
Zachary and I stayed in a guesthouse in Salzburg that in the past used to accommodate Priests who would travel there for religious purposes and when Zachary fell asleep I took this picture I thought was interesting and when I got back home I painted it. After finishing the drawing I remembered David Hockney’s famous piece from the late 60’s. I tend to look at Hockney’s work often and perhaps it is why, at times, I try to be in a place and experience it via similar filters and aspects one can find in many of his works.
The Room, Tarzana, 1967, David Hockney