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Bernie Miller (1948-2017)

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Bernie Miller installing his work "Learn to Throw Your Voice"(1986), image courtesy of The Toronto Star.
Bernie Miller was an interdisciplinary Canadian artist who worked across a range of mediums including public sculpture (for which he is best known), multimedia installation, photography and digital rendering. Through this work he was interested in exploring “monumentality, history, and identity relating to place.”¹ Miller was born in 1948 in Toronto and spent much of his life there, graduating from the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in 1974 and receiving the OCA Medal. While there he also served on the board of YYZ Artists’ Outlet for 17 years as a founding member. It was during this time that Miller participated in the group exhibition “YYZ World Tour”(1986) at the Embassy Cultural house. He later moved to Winnipeg, sitting on the board of the Plug-In Centre for Contemporary Art for 9 years.

Miller’s public sculptures inhabit cities across Canada. The first of which was installed on a Yorkville sidewalk in 1975. Other notable commissions include “Learn To Throw Your Voice,”(1986) at the Toronto Peter Street Slip, “The Poet, the Fever Hospital” (1993) across from Roy Thompson Hall, “Street Light”(1995) in Vancouver’s Marina Drive, and “Light Through”(2013) on Winnipeg’s Disraeli bridge. In addition, his gallery work has been exhibited in the USA, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Poland, and Germany. Toronto galleries Sable-Castelli and Paul Petro Contemporary Art represented Miller’s work during his career. His estate is now managed by Paul Petro.

Bernie Miller’s final work “Bloody Sunday”, a monument to commemorate the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, was made in collaboration with friend Noam Gonick and partner Jeanne Randolph. The public sculpture in Winnipeg's Exchange District serves as a life-size recreation of a streetcar overturned by demonstrators during the height of the protest. Inspiration came from a famous photograph documenting the event. Sadly, Miller passed away during the making of “Blood Sunday”, his ashes are interred in the work’s foundation.

¹ Bernie Miller, Plug In Centre for Contemporary Art

Work by Bernie Miller

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"Tableau with Beast and Pillars", 1984, steel and electrical components, 274 x 152 x 38 cm; 108 x 60 x 15 in. Image courtesy of Paul Petro Gallery and The CCCA Canadian Art Database.
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"Light Through (artwork on Disraeli Active Transit Bridge, Winnipeg)", 2013, Perforated stainless steel, 244 x 355 x 176 cm; 97 x 140 x 69 in. Image courtesy of Paul Petro Gallery and The CCCA Canadian Art Database.
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"Future Use", 1985, steel, Styrofoam, light fixtures, various found objects, 260 x 488 x 366 cm; 102 x 192 x 144 in. Image courtesy of Paul Petro Gallery and The CCCA Canadian Art Database.
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"Bloody Sunday", 2019, cor-ten steel, polycarbonate and light. Monument created by Bernie Miller and Noam Gonick to commemorate 100th anniversary of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
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"Learn to throw your Voice", 1980-1984. Preliminary drawing and maquette for public art installation. Exhibited in the "YYZ World Tour" Exhibition at the Embassy Cultural House.
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"Learn to Throw Your Voice", 1986, Concrete, bronze, stainless steel, glass, running water, 600 x 1150 x 430cm; 236 x 453 x 169 in. Image courtesy of Paul Petro Gallery and The CCCA Canadian Art Database.


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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Thank you to our partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
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      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About