Adia Millett: Reflections on Black

Haines Gallery is proud to present Reflections on Black, our first solo exhibition with Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist Adia Millett. Blackness and the subtleties of moonlight inform Millett’s palette in new paintings and glass mosaics that examine our experiences of literal and metaphorical darkness. Presenting a shadowy world navigated through introspection, Reflections on Black asks the questions: What do we see when we close our eyes, and when do we choose to close them? 

 

Throughout Reflections on Black, Millett weaves threads of African American experiences with broader ideas about personal identity, collective history, and human interconnectivity. Inspired by the potential for transformative change, a suite of new paintings included in the show evoke nocturnal landscapes, with depths and dimensions revealed through texture, iridescence, and seemingly infinite shades of black. For Millett, what exists in the dark can represent the unseen, but is also where rest, meditation, and the deepening of our other senses can occur. She explains, “This show is an exploration of the many ways we can witness blackness and our personal relationships to it as a tool for clarity.” 

 

Blackness becomes a literal surface for reflection in luminous glass mosaics that invite viewers to see themselves within the richly colored surfaces of their multifaceted compositions. Here and elsewhere in the exhibition, Millett’s compositions are dominated by geometric forms that are constantly in flux, abstract environments where hierarchies are dissolved and our notions of self and society — constructions of race and identity, cultural narratives, and systems of belief — can be deconstructed and reconsidered. 

 

In Millett’s work, images, ideas, and materials are taken apart and reassembled, drawing on traditional crafts such as quilting and stained glass. A series of three octagonal paintings recall at once cathedral rose windows, forms found in nature, and the optical sensation of patterned light that emerges behind shut eyes. Millett conceives of these works as portals, each a doorway or an opening — for light and  for human connection — and named for the qualities (humility, integrity, empathy) that break down barriers and help us to understand those around us. 

 

Throughout her practice, Millett establishes conscious links to the past — whether to her ancestors and foremothers, or to prior generations of artists and crafters — and collaborations with performers and musicians. For this exhibition, she asked Oakland-based sound artist Miles Lassi to develop an ethereal soundscape based around the themes of darkness and creativity, the relationship between our senses, and how sound can help to redefine the unknown. The subsequent composition was a source of inspiration for Millett as she worked, and is available for visitors to the exhibition to experience.