Lives and works in the lower latitudes of nostalgia.

Alex Miln is a signtologist—a term he coined to describe his obsessive commitment to the lost language of roadside America. Part anthropologist, part provocateur, Miln resurrects the commercial signage of mid-20th-century culture and retools it into bold, subversive artworks. He collects, restores, and reimagines relics of capitalism’s golden age: hand-painted slogans, rusted arrows, neon tubing, and everything that once shouted BUY ME into the great American void.

Miln’s work fuses the visual traditions of New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, creating a transpacific Americana. His pieces are simultaneously archive and accusation—evidence of the myths we sold ourselves, and the ones we still do. What some call ephemera, Miln treats as gospel. What others discard, he exalts. And what used to hang above diners and motels now hangs in galleries: signs that still sell something, only now it’s truth, irony, and cultural reckoning.

Often controversial, always deliberate, Miln’s practice calls on viewers to read between the lines—literally. These are works that confront uncomfortable histories and behavioural blind spots. His belief: signs don’t just say things, they mean things. And if you read them right, they might just say something back.

Miln has been described as “the last great preacher of roadside revelation.” He prefers: artist-craftsman. Truth dealer. Sign whisperer.