Independent 2026

Load-Bearing marks the Independent fair debut of American artist Brittany Miller and German artist Stefan Strumbel in a presentation that examines the weight cultural symbols are made to bear.

Strumbel’s five-foot bronze eagle, Mein Name ist Adler, anchors the booth as a burdened emblem, a national symbol shaped by historical inheritance and cast in different roles over centuries. Rendered withdrawn and encumbered, the eagle turns its head into its wing, a posture at odds with its customary register of dominance and pride. A nearby bronze cuckoo clock extends the inquiry to repetition and familiarity as risk.

Two paintings by Miller enter into dialogue with Strumbel’s bronzes as a measured, essential counterpoint. Where Strumbel reckons with the weight of national and folk symbols, Miller’s work turns inward, using rhythmic mark-making to register the emotional and psychological pressure belief can exert. In Cloister, Miller etches memory in concentric rings tracing time’s passage alongside the knotty interruptions of lived experience. A smaller painting evoking a tree hollow draws the focus to interior life, sheltering belief and memory quietly within.

Across sculpture and painting, tradition and belief emerge as forms shaped by time and strain. Strumbel and Miller grapple with how familiarity dulls scrutiny, and history slips back into motion unnoticed.

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