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Frank Miele was a founder of Hirschl & Adler Folk, a gallery devoted to American folk art of the 19th and 18th centuries.
In September 1991, Frank opened his own gallery of contemporary American folk art--the Frank J. Miele Gallery--on Madison Avenue, New York.
Beginning in January 2000, Frank added a mix of country products to the gallery, and added the name Country Corner.
"Comprehensible, affordable and fun"--that's how Frank describes the contemporary American folk art shown in his gallery. "People coming into the gallery," he says, "always describe the work as happy art, and always leave wearing a smile." The work in the gallery tends towards the sophisticated, and thus is far more traditional in feeling than the more contemporary, non-representational works of outsiders.
The gallery has a full schedule of exhibitions each year, changing approximately every four weeks.
Many of the products have a very contemporary appeal. Frank blends together a
mix of products which have the bold bright patterns and colors that define a
lifestyle
which can best be described as contemporary country.
Folk art has been described as the art of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Folk art has a long and rich tradition throughout the world--work in the folk tradition is generally referred to as naïve or naif art in Europe (or sometimes as primitif), and peasant painting in England-- and has flourished in America since the earliest days of the colonies. Folk art in America took on an indomitable American spirit--proud, patriotic, self-reliant--following the conclusion of the War of 1812, and the flowering of American folk art which started at that time has continued ever since.
Contemporary American folk artists share with folk artists of earlier centuries a strong narrative impulse, the use of figurative and representational forms that are highly abstract, an intuitive compositional strength, and a tendency towards the decoration and embellishment of a surface that goes well beyond necessity.
Frank, a Sunday painter, is a self-taught art dealer, lecturer and author. An art collector of some note and a senior partner at a prominent New Jersey law firm, Frank retired from the full-time practice of law, and thus left his profession in order to follow his passion.
Frank has presented lectures about American folk art at numerous museums around the country, including the Museum of American Folk Art, New York, the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, and the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. He has also written articles for several art magazines, including The Magazine Antiques, Folk Art, Elle Décor, and Art & Antiques, among many others.
"You learn best what you love, and what you really want to know," says Frank in commenting about his career as an art dealer, a lecturer and an author. |
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