Biography

A prolific sculptor, painter and installation artist, Keith Milow was born in England (1945), lived and worked in New York for fifteen years and now lives in Amsterdam. Milow’s unique sculptures are seemingly made from solid metals and glowing with rich patinas of rust, verdigris or oily black. These monumental reliefs, many of them with raised letters spelling out Milow’s personal selection of names from the 20th-century pantheon of famous artists, continue his synthesis of minimalist forms, almost painterly mottled surfaces, classical and industrial architecture references and postmodern textual/conceptual strategies. Most of the pieces, which are actually fiberglass and resin coated with an iron (or occasionally copper) wash, consist of shallow concentric tiers embossed with rings of names spelled out in capital letters. The objects invoke a time when fine detailing was obligatory for every product from manhole covers to ornamental finials. The illusionist metal surfaces given to the sculptures are made of artificially oxidised metal powder and evoke the transience of even the most lasting materials. Milow’s objects are beautiful and impressive in their scale and precision, and are fitting monuments for modernism: artificial but still substantial. Selected Public Collections include: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Museum of Modern Art, NY, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY, Tate Gallery, London, and the Henry Moore Foundation, UK.