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Adia Millett:
Reflections on BlackJanuary 16 – March 9, 2024
Haines Gallery is proud to present Reflections on Black, our first solo exhibition with Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist Adia Millett. The spectral subtleties of a moonlit night inform Millett’s palette in a new body of work that examines 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?
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Millett’s recent 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.
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Inspired by this potential for transformative change, Millett takes apart and reassembles images, ideas, and materials, drawing on forms from traditional crafts such as quilting and stained glass. This is exemplified by a suite of glass mosaics that encourage viewers to see themselves within the richly colored surfaces of their multifaceted compositions, transforming blackness into a literal surface for reflection.
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Throughout Reflections on Black, Millett weaves threads of African American experiences with broader ideas about personal identity, collective history, and human interconnectivity. Presenting kaleidoscopic blackness as a fount of possibility, her new works often 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 darkness is also where rest, meditation, and the deepening of our other senses can occur. She explains, “The work is an exploration of the many ways we can witness blackness and our personal relationships to it as tools for clarity.”
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A series of three octagonal paintings at once recall cathedral rose windows, forms found in nature, and the optical sensation of patterned light that emerges behind shut eyes. Each of these works is named for a quality that breaks down barriers and helps us to understand those around us: humility, integrity, and empathy. Millett conceives of these works as portals, doorways that lead toward these qualities and to greater human connection. Through her work, she offers us an invitation to pass through them.
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Installation photography: Robert Divers Herrick; Artwork photography: Shaun Roberts; Artist's portrait: Hope Lundblad
