What Alan Miknis wanted to show in his “Middle Americana” series is self explanatory.  The characters in his illustrations are full of truth, but almost shown in a tell-tale way: they all seem both terrified and stupid. “Given the fact that I grew up in a rural town in South Georgia, and that I now live in San Francisco, these two cultures have pushed me in my work in order to define a middle ground between necessity and excess. These portraits represent the people that are behind me in line at the supermarket, the people that cut me off when I drive, and also myself. Middle Americana is my effort to try and describe the current image of the fusion of cultures”. (Be-street.com)

Cyclorama are 360° paintings created to fit the insides of cylinders and to be viewed from the inside, providing an immersive visual experience, often enhanced with dioramic apparatus and lighting that facilitates an illusion of depth and movement. Perhaps the most famous cyclorama are those created during the Civil War era, depicting various battle scenes of the war. One such cyclorama in Atlanta (the largest oil painting in the world until 2004), portraying an unsuccessful Confederate counterattack during the war, serves as inspiration for Alan Miknis and Jeff Rahuba's new cyclorama, spanning 30 feet, and filled to the brim with their own style (Matt Groening's "In Hell" meets the album art for Guero) of martial carnage. If you need to wash out that particularly grizzly, dismal feeling still left over from your last visit to the Civil War Museum, or just enjoy fun and rebellious Southern art, come get in it at Incline Gallery.” (Joshua Wyatt, Flavorpill)