Narcissist Seeks Similar, a new edition by artist and writer Harland Miller, is taken from a recent painting of the same title from Miller’s Penguin series, which was first exhibited at the artist’s largest solo exhibition to date in his hometown of York, UK, in 2020.

Miller says, “This title came from a series called ‘Circling The Small Ads’. At the risk of over explaining this – because I’m going back a ways, these were quite literally small ads usually placed in local newspapers by people looking for some form, (often a very specific form), of companionship. My eye was always drawn to the way they were composed, with the seeker – whoever they may be – describing themselves in two or three carefully considered words, underneath which – centred and occupying its own line – was the word ’Seeks’, and then of course below that was a brief description of what, or whom they were seeking.

Desire was the activating sort of impulse behind these ads and I wanted that to come out in the painting itself: the way it was painted and the colour. I mean, colour changes the way in which you will read something. This kind of cerise pink I used (which according to Penguin’s colour-key, denoted the series on travel and adventure) is a colour that elicits a really strong response – it’s very immediate – like some primal flame being turned up inside. The colour itself was important because the narcissist had to be about desire – right, and of course that had to be special, and this is a ‘Penguin Special’ – the only one of its kind.”

Narcissist Seeks Similar has been created through multiple layers of etching and relief printing with each penguin hand-finished by Manifold Print Studio