Jason Miller: Tape, Dust and Fake Antlers

P Design Gallery

Comments (0) By Michael Paglia Thursday, Oct 26 2006

The new P Design Gallery (2590 Walnut Street, 720-259-2516) adds something new to the art scene in town: a place where design is presented not only as home furnishings, but as serious contemporary art. P is partly a furniture boutique showcasing cutting-edge design and partly a proper exhibition space, where co-curators Paul and Pifuka Hardt put on design shows.

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720-259-2516

2590 Walnut Street

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P's first show, Jason Miller: Tape, Dust and Fake Antlers, is currently on display. Miller is an up-and-coming Brooklyn-based designer who's interested in deconstructing decor from a psycho-social perspective. After graduate school at the New York Academy, Miller worked for Jeff Koons and Karim Rashid before striking out on his own and going down a very radical path.

In his outlandish creations, Miller rejects the idea of perfection, so essential to modernist and even post-modernist design. In its place he conceives of intentional imperfections that lay out narratives about the object's production or use. For his "I Was Here" tables, Miller digitally recorded graffiti carved into park benches and school desks, then had it mechanically reproduced on his simple, slat-built tables. His "Seconds" teapots are slip-cast china in traditional shapes, but the decorations, also traditional, were put on crooked or upside down.

Continuing along the same line is "Dusty Table," a small table adorned with a permanent layer of dust embedded in acrylic. Not only is "Dusty Table" on display at P, but an identical one was chosen for the upcoming National Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt in Manhattan. Get yours before the Museum of Modern Art does.

And that goes double for "Duct Tape Chair" (pictured), a modernist chair covered in tweed fabric adorned with silver strips of leather aping duct tape. I did a double take when I saw it; believe it or not, it can actually be described as chic.

Gosh, I almost forgot to mention the mirror that is etched to look as if it's covered with Scotch tape, and those iconic chandeliers in the form of ceramic deer antlers. The wonderful Tape, Dust and Fake Antlers runs through November 4 at P Design Gallery.