Design Daily: Sky Blue Series by Sam Orlando Miller

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I recently discovered the shimmering Sky Blue Series by artist Sam Orlando Miller, a London native who created these poetic works of glass and metal from his farmhouse in the Italian countryside. I caught wind of him through San Francisco’s Hedge Gallery, which just capped off the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States. 

untitled mirror 3 sam orlando miller

Untitled Mirror 3, Sam Orlando Miller Sky Blue Series. Image via samorlandomiller.co.uk.

The Sky Blue Series was born of one of Miller’s childhood memories—a fleeting, indistinct template that inspired his current sculptural meditation on the shades of sky blue. Taking sheets of colored glass, Miller silvered the backs and created prismatic geometric designs, often measuring by eye or makeshift rulers such as a leaf or a compass. The 2012 series included many pieces of wall art in addition to large tables with glass tiles ranging in color from midnight black to light blue.

I’m drawn to mirrored surfaces in general, but I enjoy Miller’s series because the assigned image in the mirror is not your own face. It’s the color of the glass, the reflected sky, the unexpected angle and refraction of items facing the work. And through even those strata, you discern the irregularities of the silver backing that creates the reflections. 

The Sky Blue Series installation at Hedge Gallery, 2012. Courtesy of Hedge Gallery.  

Items from the Sky Blue Series installation are on display at Hedge Gallery (open Tuesday through Friday, 11-6, and Saturday 11-5), but additional pieces are available by appointment.

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