Rodney McMillian’s works deftly combine concept, history, material, and process to address the relentless ubiquity of racialized violence in America. The five recent works on view probe the relationship between American scientific and artistic progress—its dubious claims to modernism—by recentering the Black body. Three works on paper caption Abstract Expressionism, troubling artistic orthodoxies by relocating its performative esthetic within a wider, racialized body politics. The other two works, monumental black monochromes, invoke Minimalism as they elaborate on both the atrocities that have plagued Black bodies at every scale, from cell to community, and the rich pleasures of resistance. For instance, the suspended, monumental, sprawling black sculpture Untitled (Entrails) issues a subtle challenge to the exhibition space’s pillared grid, escaping its oppressive containment with metabolic fugitivity … just as thick acid green, yellow, and black pigments converge to propel themselves off the edge in the Mississippi Appendectomy.
Rodney McMillian’s works explore the complex and fraught connections be-tween history and contemporary culture with a focus on American politics and modernist art traditions. The three works on view probe the relationship between American scientific and artistic progress—its dubious claims to modernism—by centering the Black body.
The monumental, sprawling sculpture Untitled (Entrails) evokes the aftermath of an evisceration or a lynching. Anchored in the ceiling of the CFA Gallery’s tall and bright-white lightwell, a long silver chain holds rusty meat hooks that suspend a looping black channel—a dark intestine enshrined in white. As it slithers into the adjoining space, Untitled (Entrails) is both an irresistible invitation and a subtle threat. Exiting the gallery, visitors encounter Between the Sun and the Moon (For H. A. Washington), a text and/as image nod to Harriet A. Washington’s important book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Between the Sun and the Moon outlines a chronology of the violence perpetrated by the American state on its Black citizens in the late-twentieth century.
At Anderson Gallery, the large black monochrome Cell I invokes Minimalism as it elaborates on both the atrocities to which Black bodies have been subjected at every scale, from cell to community, and the rich pleasures of resistance.
Rodney McMillian’s work explores the complex and fraught connections between history and contemporary culture with a focus on American politics and modernist art traditions. His paintings, sculptures, videos, and performances have been featured in many exhibitions, including the recent solos The Brown: Videos from The Black Show, Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2019); and In This Land, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019). His work has been the subject of major presentations at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2016); The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2016); MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Aspen Art Museum (2015); and the Kitchen, New York (2008). In 2016, McMillian received the Contemporary Austin’s inaugural Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize and the resulting solo exhibition Against a Civic Death was on view in 2018. Most recently, McMillian's monumental painting, shaft (2021–2022) has been installed in the iconic stairwell at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. McMillian is a faculty member in the Department of Art at the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jayne Wilkinson, “I don’t know you like that: The Bodywork of Hospitality,” C Magazine 154, Spring 2023, 78-79.
Gregory Volk, “What is Hospitality in an Era of Crisis?” Hyperallergic, February 16, 2023.
Meret Kelsey, “UB Art Galleries’ latest exhibition explores the absurdities of the human body,” The Spectrum, November 17, 2022.
Travis Diehl, “’The Bodywork of Hospitality' Sees Communal Care as a Civic Obligation,” Frieze, February 28, 2022.
Jonathan Orozco,“I don’t know you like that,” The Reader, February 25, 2022.
REVIEWS
Yxta Maya Murray, "Rodney McMillian:Body Politic," Brooklyn Rail, November 2020.
Natalie Haddad, "Rodney McMillian Deftly Treads the Line Between Politics and Aesthetics," Hyperallergic, October 30, 2020.
Jennifer Piejko, "The Crushing Weight of the Comfortable: Rodney McMillian," Mousse, October 13, 2020.
Rodney McMillian’s works deftly combine concept, history, material, and process to address the relentless ubiquity of racialized violence in America. The five recent works on view probe the relationship between American scientific and artistic progress—its dubious claims to modernism—by recentering the Black body. Three works on paper caption Abstract Expressionism, troubling artistic orthodoxies by relocating its performative esthetic within a wider, racialized body politics. The other two works, monumental black monochromes, invoke Minimalism as they elaborate on both the atrocities that have plagued Black bodies at every scale, from cell to community, and the rich pleasures of resistance. For instance, the suspended, monumental, sprawling black sculpture Untitled (Entrails) issues a subtle challenge to the exhibition space’s pillared grid, escaping its oppressive containment with metabolic fugitivity … just as thick acid green, yellow, and black pigments converge to propel themselves off the edge in the Mississippi Appendectomy.
Rodney McMillian’s works explore the complex and fraught connections be-tween history and contemporary culture with a focus on American politics and modernist art traditions. The three works on view probe the relationship between American scientific and artistic progress—its dubious claims to modernism—by centering the Black body.
The monumental, sprawling sculpture Untitled (Entrails) evokes the aftermath of an evisceration or a lynching. Anchored in the ceiling of the CFA Gallery’s tall and bright-white lightwell, a long silver chain holds rusty meat hooks that suspend a looping black channel—a dark intestine enshrined in white. As it slithers into the adjoining space, Untitled (Entrails) is both an irresistible invitation and a subtle threat. Exiting the gallery, visitors encounter Between the Sun and the Moon (For H. A. Washington), a text and/as image nod to Harriet A. Washington’s important book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Between the Sun and the Moon outlines a chronology of the violence perpetrated by the American state on its Black citizens in the late-twentieth century.
At Anderson Gallery, the large black monochrome Cell I invokes Minimalism as it elaborates on both the atrocities to which Black bodies have been subjected at every scale, from cell to community, and the rich pleasures of resistance.
Rodney McMillian’s work explores the complex and fraught connections between history and contemporary culture with a focus on American politics and modernist art traditions. His paintings, sculptures, videos, and performances have been featured in many exhibitions, including the recent solos The Brown: Videos from The Black Show, Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2019); and In This Land, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019). His work has been the subject of major presentations at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2016); The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2016); MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Aspen Art Museum (2015); and the Kitchen, New York (2008). In 2016, McMillian received the Contemporary Austin’s inaugural Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize and the resulting solo exhibition Against a Civic Death was on view in 2018. Most recently, McMillian's monumental painting, shaft (2021–2022) has been installed in the iconic stairwell at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. McMillian is a faculty member in the Department of Art at the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jayne Wilkinson, “I don’t know you like that: The Bodywork of Hospitality,” C Magazine 154, Spring 2023, 78-79.
Gregory Volk, “What is Hospitality in an Era of Crisis?” Hyperallergic, February 16, 2023.
Meret Kelsey, “UB Art Galleries’ latest exhibition explores the absurdities of the human body,” The Spectrum, November 17, 2022.
Travis Diehl, “’The Bodywork of Hospitality' Sees Communal Care as a Civic Obligation,” Frieze, February 28, 2022.
Jonathan Orozco,“I don’t know you like that,” The Reader, February 25, 2022.
REVIEWS
Yxta Maya Murray, "Rodney McMillian:Body Politic," Brooklyn Rail, November 2020.
Natalie Haddad, "Rodney McMillian Deftly Treads the Line Between Politics and Aesthetics," Hyperallergic, October 30, 2020.
Jennifer Piejko, "The Crushing Weight of the Comfortable: Rodney McMillian," Mousse, October 13, 2020.