Her Story

Nancy Miller was a globally-heralded cut paper and mixed media-specialty artist living in New York City, U.S.A. Before New York, her studio was on the campus of the former Urbana University in Ohio. She was born in Lancaster, OH and studied at Bennett College (class of 1947) and the Maryland Institute (1949). Her art legacy ended with her death in 2010.

From the ‘60s to the turn of the 21st century, she was featured in many galleries and exhibitions - gaining acclaim throughout the U.S. and the U.K. - including having her works featured alongside Andy Warhol in the Smithsonian. More than 1,000 corporate, private and musuem venues displayed her works.

Miller's art was used in design layouts of many popular magazines and newspapers including: Interior Design, The New Yorker, the New York Times, Vogue and Playboy, to name a handful. The artist was commissioned for public sculptures and large wall multimedia and acrylic art but is mostly remembered for her cast and cut paper works of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Some of the influences she credited in names of her pieces are Matisse and Vasareli.

“When Nancy Miller held her first one-man show in New York in 1970, she sold all 47 of her unique plexiglas-and-paper sculptures and earned herself a position in the front ranks of contemporary art.” - United States Information Agency: New American Sculpture.

Her paper cuttings are “… cut by hand, and their precision is as awe-inspiring as seeing a stadium full of gymnasts doing the same thing at the same time.” - Alfred Frankenstein, The San Francisco Chronicle.

The works she connected with the most were an art form she originated which is often copied today…. her iconic mixed media and acryllics with either fantasy or apocalyptic twists, sometimes ironically using church altar pews as a medium foundation. These large wall images with intricate detailing were not meant to put the onlookers at ease, but to make them realize that their lives and the planet’s are short and precious. Since fantasy art is becoming a popular genre today, Miller’s favorite works may be seen as “ahead of their time.”

Her three children invite you to share in her legacy.