Background
Adia Millett was born in 1975, in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Adia Millett was born in 1975, in Los Angeles, California, United States.
In 1997, Adia received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000, she got a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Also, in 2001, Millett attended the prestigious Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York City.
During her career, Adia took part in numerous exhibitions. Selected ones include "Absolute Biennial", Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles (1999), "CalArts Postal", Studio 9, London (1999), "Sitegeist", Porter Troope Gallery, San Diego (2000), "Freestyle", The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City (2001), "Staged/Unstaged", Riva Gallery, New York City (2002), "Black Pesident", New Museum, New York City (2003), "African Queen", Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City (2005), "Swab", Barcelona, Spain (2007), "Stretching The Truth", John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan (2008), "Some Assembly Required", Sesnon Art Gallery, Santa Cruz (2009), "Day to Day", Martos Gallery, New York City (2010), "Mini Size Me", Bakersfield Museum, Bakersfield (2011), "Solo", Mixed Greens gallery, New York City (2012), "Who is Oakland?", Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland (2015), "Re-Connect", Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland (2016), "Where is Here", Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco (2017), "Burning Bright", DZINE Gallery, San Francisco (2018), "Black Refractions", Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco (2019) and many others.
Her residencies include the Studio Museum in Harlem residency program, Three Walls Artist Residency, Headlands Center for the Arts and the Fountainhead residency in Miami.Moreover, Millett taught as an artist-in-residence at Columbia College in Chicago, University of California, Santa Cruz, Cooper Union in New York City and California College of the Arts.
Adia Millett says her art is about expanding the notion of identity. Her work is intensely spatial, as scale becomes warped through her lens. Millet arranges her surreal, atmospheric locations both at the level of miniature and large scale installation, then documents each scene photographically. Her compositions emphasize the structure of a room, directly addressing the viewer.
Among her many works, there are installations, that challenge viewers’ assumptions about their homes, fears, desires and politics. She achieves this by recreating bizarre, sometimes disturbing, home interiors.
Quotations: "My process is informed by taking things apart, removing, replacing, cutting, pasting, sewing and building, in order to discover the space, where transitions occur and where stories of impermanence unfold."
"Through the placement of often, solitary objects (a chair, an embroidered bird, a window, a stack of books, a single house, etc.), I insert my own inflection into a language of craft, empowered by symbolism and technique."
"I have used installation, sculpture, embroidery, textiles, photography, video, drawing and collage to explore these metaphorical spaces. Traces of untold stories linger in each object. Often devoid of humans, the spaces/objects reveal the illusion of an ephemeral ghost-like atmosphere, where we witness a push and pull between the familiar and the unfamiliar."
"I attempt to promote a space where site specificity, found objects, craft, concept and form create a dialogue for characters to develop and for memories to resurface."
"Plastic covered couches, glass angels, ornate gold frames, dimly lit dollhouses, dusty silk roses, needlepoint crosses, chandeliers, hand guns and cockroaches are a few tools I use for developing composition."
Quotes from others about the person
"Adia is foremost a storyteller. As an African-American woman, she deals with issues of identity and transformation. She brings to the table her experiences, family and community, as well as African-American history and literature. There’s so much there." — Mar Hollingsworth, curator of California African American Museum