Adia Millett

American, b. 1975

Lives and works in Oakland, CA

Adia Millett’s work investigates the fragile interconnectivity among all living things, weaving threads of African American experiences with broader ideas of identity and collective history. Inspired by Afrofuturism, emotional resiliency, and the preservation of our land, her multi-disciplinary practice includes painting, quilting, stained glass, collage, video, sculpture, and installation.

Images, ideas and materials are deconstructed and reassembled to shed light on the parallels between the creative process and the nature of personal identity. In Millett’s paintings, abstracted, geometric shapes imply movement: colorful forms expand and collapse freely among backgrounds that hint of landscapes and man-made structures.

Millett received her BFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and is an alumnus of the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. She has completed residencies at the Studio Museum of Harlem (2002); Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA (2007); School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s ThreeWalls Residency (2010); Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL (2015); and the Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, GA (2018). In 2021, Millett was awarded the Anonymous Was A Woman Award.

Recent solo exhibitions include Wisdom Keepers at ICA San José, CA (2023); A Force of Nature at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA (2022); The Privilege to Breathe at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, CA (2019); Breaking Patterns at The California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2019). In addition to Freestyle, The Studio Museum in Harlem’s groundbreaking 2001 exhibition, Millett’s work has been included in group shows at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; New Museum, New York, NY; Oakland Museum of California, CA; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, among other prestigious institutions.

Artist CV (PDF)

Adia Millett
Group Exhibition

Packing and Cracking: The Art Of (and Response To) Gerrymandering
Saint Joseph's Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA
September 17 - December 16, 2024

Adia Millett is included in a new group exhibition at the Saint Joseph's Art Foundation. Packing and Cracking features quilts and fiber-based artworks that explore the effects of gerrymandering on...

Adia Millett
Public Commission

UCSF announces Adia Millett's new commission for Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA

Oakland-based artist Adia Millett has been selected to create public art at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Millett’s work is expected to grace the facade of the hospital’s new Administrative...

Adia Millett
Artist Talk

Unexpected Connections: Quilting and the Social Fabric
Saint Joeph's Arts Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 | 6pm - 8pm

Join Adia Millett in a panel discussion about quilt making as a powerful tools for expression, activism, and storytelling. Moving beyond tradition, quilts can serve as symbols of political dissent...

Eric Brooks, "Interactive Art Helps Heal Patients at New Bayfront Medical Building," UCSF.edu, September 16, 2024

Janis Hashe, "Kala's Half-Century Under the Sky," East Bay Express, May 28, 2024

Laura López González, "Local Artist Adia Millett Selected for Benioff Oakland Facade Art," UCSF.edu, March 18, 2024

David M. Roth, “Adia Millett: A Warrior for Beauty and Black Culture,” Squarecylinder.com, October 27, 2023

Hilarie M. Sheets, “A Portrait Miniature Was Muse to Mickalene Thomas,” The New York Times, September 9, 2023

Emily Wilson, “Contemporary Multi-Media Artist Adia Millett,” Art is Awesome with Emily Wilson, October 10, 2023

“Adia Millett at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles,” ARTnews, May 22, 2019

Jessica Gelt, "Artist Adia Millett on a new generation's quest to pick apart their identities," Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2019

Eli Zeger, "Broken Homes: Adia Millett at the California African American Museum," Art in America, March 25, 2019

Rachel Howard, "Diverse voices from a changing community in 'Who is Oakland?'," SF Gate, April 8, 2015

Angela Hill, "Oakland museum exhibit asks, 'Who Is Oakland?'," The Mercury News, April 8, 2015

Rachel Howard, “Diverse voices from a changing community in ‘Who is Oakland?’,” SF Gate, April 8, 2015

Adia Millett

American, b. 1975

Lives and works in Oakland, CA

ARTIST DIGEST | ADIA MILLETT

Adia Millett: Reflections on Black

Adia Millett
Group Exhibition

Adia Millett
Public Commission

Adia Millett
Artist Talk

Cookie preferences

Adia Millett

American, b. 1975

Lives and works in Oakland, CA

ARTIST DIGEST | ADIA MILLETT

Adia Millett: Reflections on Black

Adia MillettGroup Exhibition

Adia MillettPublic Commission

Adia MillettArtist Talk

Adia Millett
Group Exhibition

Adia Millett
Public Commission

Adia Millett
Artist Talk