John F. Miller, who has been a painter for most of his life, taught painting at the School of the Art Institute for many years. In recent years, the prolific Miller has shifted his artistic focus to the creation of large scale digital compositions, which are then printed archivally, and often combined to form expansive grids like those shown in his one man show at the Chicago Cultural Center last year. Layering of historic and anthropological images with gritty urban scenes and surfaces has become a hallmark of Miller's more recent work, as are unexpected colors and solarized elements. Miller's work is contained in many private and corporate collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, Kirkland & Ellis, and Burrell Advertising. This exhibit will mark the first time Miller's paintings and digital work will be shown together in the same venue.

Gagik Aroutiunian, who was raised in Armenia, came to the United States via Toronto in 1987 after receiving a BA at the University of Toronto. Once in the US, Aroutiunian earned an MFA in sculpture from Towson State University in Maryland in 1991. His work has been shown in over a dozen solo shows throughout the world, and his performance pieces have been shown in both Canada and the US. Widely reviewed, Aroutiunian's sculptural objects, which are evocative of altars or holy water fonts, often reference family and homeland. The non-sentimental nostalgia of these pieces creates a common experience to be shared by viewer and artist. Aroutinian's smaller sculptural pieces seem, on one hand, to be blown together by a force of nature, yet somehow simultaneously, have a sense of being methodically constructed.

Frank Connet works with dyes made from natural substances; indigo, and madder are among the handful Connet uses to produce his subtle work. Like the music of Philip Glass, Connet arranges and rearranges a limited number of hues and forms, creating an entirely new composition with each piece. Connet works on wool, cutting, dying and stitching pieces into tapestries that are informed by Japanese textiles, modernist forms and natural elements such as pods and leaves. Connet and his work have been profiled in Surface Design, Fiber Arts Magazine, and others, and pieces are contained in many collections including that of The Art Institute of Chicago. The work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States.