Art Atrium Gallery in Sydney is the venue for the latest exhibition by Australian artist, Max Miller. Max was my contemporary at the Julian Ashton Art school in Sydney, where we both worked under the watchful eye of Henry Cornwallis Gibbons. This was an occasion to reminisce about old friends and adventures we had shared in Sydney and the bush.
John Olsen also had fond memories of the school having earlier been a student of “Gibby”, as we affectionately called him. Max had printed many etching editions for John over the years at his Kangaloon studio and the two enjoy a long friendship and mutual regard.
John offered to open Max’s show, which was tribute indeed when one considers the many requests the great artist receives and declines. Max searches for the spirituality of nature. His prodigious drawing talent permits him to move with ease from lyrical abstraction to the close observation of natural things, which he renders with searching analysis. He is an inveterate bushman and is never happier than when he is enjoying a solitary ramble, in all seasons, in the wild hinterland of Australia.
In his affectionate speech John Olsen observed that Max is a passionate master who paints the small things that the hurrying world passes by. Max, who could be embarrassingly modest about his achievements, had created work that was highly estimable and full of integrity.- Paul Delprat
Art Atrium Gallery located at 181 Old South Head Road, Bondi Junction in Sydney. See www.artatrium.com.au