HARLAND MILLER

Early Years

Harland Miller was born in 1964 in North Yorkshire. His biography at White Cube Gallery quotes him as saying: “Where I grew up, it was an industrial town; people saw life as carnage, just one long, ongoing difficulty, but relieved here and there with humour.” Books were an important part of his childhood, including boxes of Penguin titles acquired by his collector father. After gaining his BA and MA (1987 and 1988) from Chelsea College of Art in London, he moved around the world, living in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris. In the French capital, he once again came across Penguin books in the second-hand stalls by the Seine. “When I found the Penguin books again in Paris,” he said in 2015, “I had that... instant nostalgia for them.” However, he was also struck by the way the design emphasised the title of each book.

Harland Miller: Artworks

While Harland Miller has perhaps become defined to some people by his Penguin books series, his practice is much broader—and more nuanced. His artwork considers the balance and relationship between each of the saturated, bright colours in his palette, as well as the effects that can be achieved by different painterly styles. He foregrounds the relationship between art and design, exploring graphic design principles, Pop Art, humour and emotion.

• In 1992, Miller produced his first Penguin book cover, I’m So Fucking Hard Ernest Hemingway, beginning a relationship between his own flair with language and the well-known Penguin logo and the Rothko-esque visual signature of the brand’s early paperback covers. The Bad Weather Paintings combined the visual style of the publisher’s Pelican imprint with a wry take on Yorkshire towns—Whitby—The Self-Catering Years (2002 and 2024) and York, So Good They Named it Once (2009).
• Miller’s Letter Paintings series are inspired by medieval manuscripts, fusing the idea of highlighting a single, decorative letter, with the sensibilities of Pop Art and Miller’s own satirical use of words. XXX (2019), blends reds and pinks, overlaying a white “X” three times and creating the impression that the letter is moving.
• The Hell Paintings series also fuses medieval and Pop Art concepts, blending a bold combination of colours with the word “Hell” and darkly humorous sub-headings, such as in the black, pink and yellow Hell... Don’t Make Me Come Down There 99 (2020) and 2017’s turquoise, red and purple Hell... The Kind of Nightmare You Only Dream Of 9.

Harland Miller: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Harland Miller, Nevill Holt Festival, Medbourne (2026)
• Harland Miller at the Design Museum, London (2025)
• Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery (2025)
• All Night Meteorite, White Cube West Palm Beach, (2023)
• Imminent End, Rescheduled Eternally, White Cube, London (2022)
• The French Letter Paintings, White Cube Paris Viewing Room (2021)
• York, So Good They Named it Once, York Art Gallery (2020)
• White Cube, Hong Kong (2019)
• One Bar Electric Memoir, White Cube, London (2017)
• Tonight We Make History (PS I Can’t Be There), Blain/Southern, Berlin (2016)
• In Dreams Begin Monsters, Palacio Quintanar, Segovia (2015)
• On Overcoming Optimism, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2012)
• _Penguin Series, Galleria Marabini, Bologna (2012)
• Have You Ever Stopped to Wonder Why You’re Not Here, LAB Art, Beirut (2011)
• I’ll Never Forget What I Can’t Remember, Galerie Alex Daniels, Reflex Amsterdam (2010)
• Don’t Let the Bastards Cheer You Up, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2009)
• Siesta Forever—Come on and Sing my Song, The Fireplace Project, East Hampton, Long Island (2007)
• Dear Son, This is one of the last of my few remaining pre-marital possessions—look after it won’t you, Love Dad, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York City (2005)
• To Jean, A Small Memento for a Great Effort, Love Alan, White Cube, London (2002)
• First I Was Afraid; I Was Petrified, Fig —1, London (2000)
• You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil, Fakhoury Steinitz Gallery, Paris (1995)
• Kimono My Place, Louis XIV Gallery, Paris (1992)
• Love Saves the Day, Prisunic Gallery, New York City (1991)
• Rovers Return, Prisunic Gallery, New York City (1990)
• Here Comes Everyone, Watermans Art Centre, London (1989)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Hollywood dream bubble: Ed Ruscha’s influence in Los Angeles and beyond, The Hole, Los Angeles (2024)
• White Cube at Arley Hall, Northwich (2022)
• Destroyed by Shadows, Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University (2018)
• Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick, Somerset House, London (2016)
• Hay Festival, Museum Esteban Vicente, Segovia (2015)
• Never Judge a Book, Meadow Arts, Hay on Wye (2015)
• What Marcel Duchamp taught me, Fine Arts Society, London (2014)
• Once upon a time and a very good time it was..., Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2013)
• Cool Britannia, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (2012)
• Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action, White Cube, London (2010)
• Exhibitionism: The Art of Display, Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2010)
• Turps Banana 1, Galleria Marabini, Milan (2009)
• Turps Banana 2, Galleria Marabini, Bologna (2009)
• You Dig The Tunnel, I’ll Hide The Soil, White Cube and Shoreditch Town Hall, London (2008)
• Voewood Projects, High Kelling (2008)
• The Portrait, V22 ASHWINSTREET, London (2006)
• Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005)
• The Charged Image, Joseloff Gallery, West Hartford (2004)
• Bad August, Richard Salmon Gallery, London (1996) Fools Rain, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1996)
• Group Show, Alexander Roussos, London (1989)

Further Reading

• Artist profile page at White Cube
• 2025 interview from the Financial Times
• 2015 video about the making of The Me I Never Knew

Harland Miller FAQs

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