Virginia Miller, described by a leading magazine as "the undisputed doyenne of South Florida art dealers," has presented more than 300 public exhibitions of art ranging from works by acknowledged masters to the initial exhibitions of emerging artists, all with several common characteristics. "The work that I've shown reflects my taste and my judgment," said the veteran art dealer. "I've always tried to show work that I thought presented a unique personal vision, that has long-term artistic significance, and lastly, that represents good value to my clients."

As the owner and director of Greater Miami's longest-established contemporary fine art gallery, Miller can reflect on the many exhibitions she has curated and designed since 1974 at the gallery's original location in Coconut Grove, at a 9,000-square-foot space at Douglas Center, in annex galleries at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables and Miamarina in downtown Miami, as well as in such other venues as the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Gallery of Broward Community College and in her present gallery in downtown Coral Gables.

Another memorable one-person exhibit documented light sculpture by Eric Staller. The high-light of the show was his "Lightmobile," a VW Beetle studded with 1,659 tiny light bulbs flashing in computer-generated patterns. "At night, we took the Lightmobile out on the road with all of its lights flashing various patterns," Miller said. "People remembered seeing it in the movie 'The Money Pit.' Everyone honked at us, and when we stopped in Coconut Grove it really attracted a crowd. The Miami Herald ran a big picture and story about it in color on the front page of the local section."

Some of the gallery's shows have been controversial, such as Fernando Luis' one-person exhibition of lascivious priests and pregnant nuns, or contemporary Russian art years before glasnost and perestroika, when the Soviet Union was still viewed as our nation's enemy.

Other criteria for exhibitions presented by Miller has been a highly accomplished technique and the "spirit" or artistic integrity of the work. "I've always believed that a dealer in contemporary art has a great responsibility to help people learn how to look at art, to feel what it's about, and not to be intimidated by new art forms," she stated.

Included in the exhibition was Neel's six-foot portrait of Miller, done shortly after the art dealer and Neel met while serving on panels during a seminar at Manhattan's prestigious New School. "While I was posing for my portrait, I persuaded her to show the historic works by offering to dredge them out of the nooks and crannies of her rambling apartment in Spanish Harlem," Miller recalled. "When I went back there to select works for her show, my husband and I spent most of a day dragging dusty paintings from beneath her bed and out of the depths of her closets," Miller recalls.

Clearly, Neel had not seen many of the works for a long while. Years before, an irate lover had cut up and burned 60 of her paintings and 200 drawings and watercolors. From time to time as the artist saw an artwork she exclaimed, "I thought that son-of-a-bitch had burned that one!" The Alice Neel retrospective was reviewed in national arts magazines and newspapers. Until then largely overlooked by the art establishment, within a few years Neel was featured on the cover of Time magazine as one of the century's most important portrait artists.

About that same time, Miller arranged for the first exhibition of models and architectural drawings by SITE, the multidisciplinary art and architecture organization from New York City. The SITE team had created a number of nationally publicized "de-constructed" buildings around the nation, including two in Greater Miami. Miller arranged for two Grey-hound buses, complete with live music and snacks on the road, to take art enthusiasts to tour them after the opening reception.

Many of the works from the SITE architectural exhibition went on to be shown in Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York and at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1983 Miller scored a national coup with a world-wide exclusive exhibition and sale of "Doonesbury" animation drawings and paintings. "Doonesbury" animation art is rarely seen on the market, as Garry Trudeau only allows it to be sold to benefit select charities—in this case, for abused children.

The following year ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries mounted one of its largest exhibitions: more than 130 images from 19th and 20th century master photographers. Including works by the inventor of the photographic negative, William Henry Fox Talbot, and the first woman photographer, Anna Atkins, the show presented a history of photography, including works by the early Europeans, the American pictorialists and the then-courant colorists, such as Elliott Porter, represented by a pair of oversize dye transfers.

In 1985 the gallery presented another historic blockbuster: "Richard Pousette-Dart: Paintings: From the 1940s to the Present." It was the first exhibition in the South for Pousette-Dart, youngest member of the New York School of abstract expressionists. "I found out why no one had sought him out to show his work," Miller recalls.

In 1992 ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries presented Florida's first major exhibition and sale of Australian aboriginal art, "Walk About In The Dream-time." Its guest of honor was Rover Thomas, a founder of the Turkey Creek School of aboriginal art and one of two Aborigine painters who had rep-resented Australia in the Venice Biennale.

"Rover speaks five aboriginal languages, but doesn't know a lot of English," Miller said. "His sense of humor was wonderful. When I walked toward him from across the room he would turn to my husband, smile and say, 'Boss come.

"When I took him to the Foundlings Club to talk about his art, about all he could do is point to a mark on one of his pictures, give us a big smile, and say, 'Water.' Aboriginal 'dreamings' often represent a sort of map of their desert, so locating water was the most important thing he wanted us to know about. Fortunately, we had another member of their community present to give us some insight into the work and the aboriginal culture."

In 1998 the gallery presented a major exhibition of paintings by Ramon Oviedo, the leading master artist of the Dominican Republic. Called "one of the greatest masters in Latin American contemporary art" by the late Jose Gomez Sicre, director of the Organization of American States Museum, Oviedo had never had a major exhibition in the United States. Guests at the Oviedo opening included the award-winning Latin jazz composer and performer Chichi Peralta and members of his band. Peralta presented the gallery his most recent CD, which is always among the selections played during openings for Latin artists.

In the spring of 2004, ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries presented the latest in its series of exhibitions of modern masters. "Gunther Gerzso:Defining Mexican Abstraction" featured 86 works done from 1935 to 1978 by Mexico's leading abstract artist, a stellar figure in the pantheon of Latin American artists. The exhibition was a world premiere of most of the 1935-41 works as well as the first time Gerzso's works had been presented in a major exhibition in the southeastern United States.

"The drawings and paintings were done when Gerzso was the set and costume designer at the Cleveland Playhouse," Miller said. "Gerzso was only in his 20s, but the playhouse director recognized that he had a budding master artist and so he collected everything young Gerzso produced.

"When the director died a few years ago, about 400 of Gerzso's early works–the largest archive of any modern master artist available today – were discovered in a trunk in a back room of the playhouse. The Santa Barbara Museum spent two years documenting them and a selection of them was included in their catalog and major traveling exhibition of Gerzso's work."

Miller commissioned two of the nation's largest bronze sculptures, a sprawling 36 by 78-foot installation on Biscayne Bay in Miami and a 60-foot-tall work at the International Airport in Omaha, Nebraska, both by John Raimondi.

Other public sculptures commissioned by Miller include a larger-than-life bronze of baseball immortal Joe DiMaggio and a small boy at the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, by Zenos Frudakis. Miller's article on outdoor sculpture for Collector-Investor magazine was full of advice for anyone contemplating an outdoor work, particularly one in the subtropics or near salt water. "Artists often have to learn through costly experience that designs that look wonderful don't always work outdoors," Miller said. "I help my clients select out-door works that will look great year after year and require less maintenance."

Miller has received international recognition in publications ranging from the New York Times to Artnews magazine, which gave her a full-page testimonial in 1988 for the quality of her exhibitions and community involvement. Arte al Dia International included her in its People in Art interviews for its 100th Anniversary Issue. Miami Magazine included Ms. Miller in a special section with the notation: "The six-foot redhead is a cultural explosion all by herself." She was featured in Town and Country magazine in February 1996. Referring to her gallery's longevity, Lear's magazine declared her the doyenne of South Florida art dealers.