Monumental paintings by the artist Harland Miller will go on display in a free exhibition at the Design Museum in London next month.
Harland Miller Far Out 2022 – Courtesy of the artist and the Design Museum
Miller, celebrated for his blend of image, text and biting wit, is recognised as a major figure in contemporary art. The free display showing his works will span two locations within the museum, bringing together works from his ongoing Letter Painting series. Visitors will see how Miller applies the language of graphic design to fine art, using colour, typography and imposing scale.
Large canvases will fill one gallery, while a complementary display of works on paper will be installed on the museum’s mezzanine level.
Alongside newly produced pieces, the exhibition will feature earlier works such as Far Out (2022), Miller’s first diptych in the series, where oversized characters compete for attention across two panels, and XXX (2025), which reflects both the graphic qualities of the letter and its associations with punk and adult cinema.
The billboard-like scale of these works, the museum notes, is informed by Miller’s years living in Los Angeles.
The accompanying works on paper aim to explore the compositional planning underpinning the large paintings, offering a close-up view of the interplay between form, colour and typographic structure that defines the series.
It was while studying for an A-Level in the History of Lettering that Miller discovered the allure of medieval manuscripts, in which monks laboured to produce highly decorative letters as chapter-headings. His Letter Paintings series of artworks draw on that tradition, merging illuminated script with the aesthetics of Pop Art.
The exhibition, Harland Miller at the Design Museum opens on 10th December 2025 and runs until 25 January 2026.
Entry is free.