Miles Petrella
Montreal, CanadaBiography
Originally from Montreal, Miles Petrella is a multidisciplinary visual artist and makeup artist. In 2017, he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts, as well as a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality, at Concordia University. He works mainly with installations and sculpture but he also explores the mediums of painting and drawing. He draws his influences from “queer” theory, mythologies, the philosophy of aesthetics and the abject. During his studies, he also participated in curatorial activities. He completed his certificate in professional makeup at Inter-Dec College in 2018. He now works in the beauty field and incorporates “drag” into his artistic expression.
About the artwork
Affect Camp (2016-2021)
The Affect Camp project combines a series of works produced between 2016 and 2021. In these pieces, the artist redefines the relationship between material properties and their meanings. Inspired by mythology, he parallels contemporary subjects with the themes of virility, hubris, artifice and abject. These subjects are explored and deconstructed. The installation invokes a feeling or a multisensory emotional response, while deliberately mocking certain traditional notions of taste, aesthetics and binarity.
During the residency, the work will evolve as the artist conjures up images of his practice of Drag and his character Olympia. Photographs will thus accompany this installation which touches on the idea of “diva worship”. Olympia will face various queer iconographic figures from the history of art and the media, to create glamorous and iconoclastic paintings.
COME MEET THE ARTIST
CITÉ DU MULTIMÉDIA (CDM)
75 Queen
Room 1200
Residence completed
Photo : Camille Dubuc
Artworks by the artist
