RIDGEFIELD, CT.- The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum opened Creative Growth: Dan Miller and Judith Scott, an exhibition of works by two artists who are closely associated with Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center— an institution which serves a community of mentally, developmentally, and physically disabled adult artists.

Curator Matthew Higgs—a British artist, writer, and publisher—has selected a series of works by Judith Scott (1943–2005), who worked at the center between 1987 and 2005, and Dan Miller (b.1961), who has now worked at Creative Growth’s studio for more than fifteen years.

This exhibition furthers the organization’s vision to present the art produced in their studios alongside that of other contemporary artists—without any of the typical prejudices or hierarchies that serve only to reinforce the marginalization of people with disabilities.

The work of Judith Scott and Dan Miller is ultimately rooted in what might be thought of as an expanded field of “drawing.” Central to their respective approaches is an engagement with the everyday and the commonplace, evidenced in their choices of materials and subject matter. Both create multiple layers—through the use of yarn and twine in Scott’s case, language in Miller’s—which in turn create dense fields and structures of visual information that are simultaneously open and closed.

Creative Growth is part of a series of exhibitions and related programming presenting an array of approaches taken by contemporary artists who push the boundaries of drawing, the most direct and universal means of visual expression.

Dan Miller (b. 1961) lives in Hayward, CA, and works at Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center. Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Christian Berst, Paris, France (2012); Ricco Maresca, New York (2010); and White Columns, New York (2007). Recent group exhibitions include Create, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, CA (2011); Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); and Creative Growth, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York (2007). His work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among other private and public collections.

Judith Scott (1943–2005) was born in Columbus, OH. She worked at the Creative Growth Art Center between 1987 and 2005. Recent solo exhibitions include The Museum of Everything, London (2011); Museum Gugging, Vienna, Austria (2010); and White Columns, New York (2010.) Recent group exhibitions include Rosemarie Trockel—A Cosmos, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain (2012); Everyday Abstract—Abstract Everyday, James Cohan Gallery, New York (2012); Creative Growth, Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin, Germany (2009); and Dereconstruction, Gladstone Gallery, New York (2006). Her work is in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other private and public collections.