Street Art

Miles DeCoster

  • The milesdecoster.com site has been redesigned as of Nov. 2011. More work will be added as time permits, as will some responsive design components to make a better use of smaller screens and touch interaction. The previous version of the site is still available at Previous Site.

  • recent art

    Recent work

    Here is a selection of recent work in a variety of mediums including some new paintings that combine sporting events, board games, and various genres of painting, some new images in the Uccello Rosso series, people that live inside my head and whatever else happens to be in progress.

  • Landscapes

    Landscapes

    Landscapes, real, remembered or imagined, continue to be an essential part of my imagery. Memories of the Mississippi River and Missouri farms, the fields of corn and soy beans I drive through on my way to and from Kutztown, or the view out the third floor window on a snowy day in Reading generate the basic images which only take solid form through the act of painting.

  • Figures and faces

    Figures and faces

    The human form (and the odd cat or cow, now and then) is always an interesting challenge. Self-portraits are rightly of little interest to anyone else, but the model is cheap. People that live inside my head, is a series exploring my own particular collection of imagined persons who apparently wish to escape my head into the world of representation.

  • Prints and books

    Prints and books

    Making a work of art that exists as multiple instances is an interesting proposition. I first wrote "multiple copies" but that is not quite correct as prints and books are not copies of some singular original but are each the equal of the other. I made some cheap offset-printed books and prints in the'70s and '80s, but the advent of the World Wide Web and the ubiquity of digital printers and print on demand have made that genre less interesting for me.

  • Chess and games

    Chess and games

    Like many at the time, I got hooked on chess when Bobby Fischer played Boris Spassy for the world championship in 1972. Though my board play never really developed beyond a patzer, the logic and the imagery have stayed with me. In progress are a series of 64 chess boards depicting real and fictious games which together form a large chess board. Table hockey, slot car racing and ping pong were also favorites and will, I suspect, sooner or later find their way into the mix.

  • Conceptual art

    Conceptual art

    The term "conceptual art" has an overtone of pretentiousness about it, as if other forms of art were lacking in concept, but it is widely used and I can think of no better term for some of the work I do.

  • Earlier work

    The archive

    Here is a some earlier work, which in my case means before 1993. I chose that year only as it was the year I moved from the midwest to the east coast, and is otherwise of no particular significance. Included here are some images of Crumbs, the school newspaper of the Art Institute of Chicago where I attended graduate school in the late 1970s and a few things from my undergraduate days at Wahington University in St. Louis.




  • DeCoster farm, Missouri

    Oil on canvas, 28" x 36", 2011, $1100

  • Study for Kasparov vs Barcalona

    Acrylic on wood panel, 21" x 37", 2011, Private collection

  • Kasparov used the Sicilian defense effectively against Barcelona's 4-3-3

    Oil and acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60", 2011, $1500

  • Uccello Rosso tries out for a spot on a cartoon network

    Casein on panel, 24" x 24", 2011, $500

  • The tall lanky stranger cast an ominous shadow across old Route 66

    Casein on panel, 24" x 24", 2011, $500

  • Is romance in the air or will it all go up in smoke?

    Casein on panel, 24" x 24", 2011, $500

  • People that live inside my head 1

    Oil on canvas, 18" x 24", 2011, $300

  • People that live inside my head 2

    Oil on canvas, 18" x 24", 2011, Private collection

  • Route 16 near Bethany Beach

    Pastel on paper, 22" x 30", 2002, Private collection

  • Field of wheat (burning)

    Oil on canvas, 40" x 52", 2003, $2500

  • 3 blue crows (why my father cries)

    Oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2003, Private collection

  • Corn and soybeans

    Oil on canvas, 44" x 52", 2005, $1500

  • Missouri farm

    Casein on panel, 10" x 8", 2007, On loan

  • Inferno with state quarters

    Oil and coins on canvas, 30" x 46", 2003, $1500

  • Farm near Kutztown

    Oil on canvas, 40" x 30", 2004, Private collection

  • Somewhere on I-70, Ohio

    Acrylic on canvas, 24" x 30", 2003, Private collection

  • Toscana

    Oil on canvas, 30" x 46", 2008, $800

  • Firenze

    Oil on canvas, 60" x 84", 2006, Private collection

  • Dairy barn, Brainard Farm, Vermont

    Pastel on paper 30" x 22", 2003, $300

  • Chicane after the tunnel, Monaco

    Oil pastel on paper, 50" x 64", 2008 Private collection

  • Pennsylvania reclining nude

    Pastel on paper, 28" x 20", 2003, $400 (framed)

  • Man with hat and cigar

    Pastel on paper, 12" x 16", 2003, NFS

  • Woman with red hair

    Oil on canvas, 30" x 46", 2011, $900

  • Well after Modigliani 1

    Oil on canvas, 46" x 30", 2011, $900

  • Dexter vs Diesel

    Oil on canvas, 24" x 30", 2006, Private collection

  • Sitting woman

    Pastel on paper, 22" x 30", 2006, $300

  • Uccello Rosso with stars, astroids and lizards

    Woodblock print on paper, 24" x 26", 2011, $150

  • Scotoma: blind spot in the visual field

    Book, Offset lithography on paper, 8" x 5" x 24 pages, 1978, $10

  • Aperçu

    Book, Offset lithography on paper, 8.5" x 11" x 18 pages, 1977, $10

  • Target - .22 rifle at 50 feet

    Etching on paper, 14" x 22", 2007, $100

  • Hot dogs

    Silk screen on paper, 32" x 20" 1978, $300

  • A series of painted chess boards.

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", first 8 of 64

  • The Immortal Game: Adolph Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritsky, London 1851

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Naploleon Bonapart vs The Turk, Schoenbrunn Palace 1809

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky, Reykjavik 1972

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue, Philadelphia 1996

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Tibor Tolnai vs Judit Polgar, Budapest 1991

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Alan Turing vs Alick Glennie, Manchester 1951

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Marcel Duchamp vs Eve Babitz, Pasadena 1963

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Murphy vs Mr. Endon, London 1938

    House paint on plywood, 24" x 24", 2003

  • Nation of Nezúmi, flag

    Acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18", 1986, NFS

  • Nation of Nezúmi, maquette

    Copper, 1n x 1n x 1n, 1984, NFS

  • Art Equity Inc. Common Stock Certificate

    Letterpress on paper, 22" x 18" 1980, $200

  • Art Equity Parking Sign

    Enamel on pressed steel, 11" x 17" 1980, $300

  • Crumbs

    Offset lithography on paper, 1978, NFS

  • Crumbs

    Offset lithography on paper, 1978, NFS

  • Cold Flash

    Event: Dry ice and flash bulbs, Washington Univerity, 1971

  • Line of fire

    Event: Gasoline on field, 1971

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