Mixed Greens is pleased to present their third solo exhibition of new works by Adia Millett. In The Birth of Bardo she will introduce her first film, photographs selected from her most recent installations, and a new life-sized installation. Visitors are invited to participate in the scene, sit, contemplate, and implicate themselves in a dream-like environment teetering between fantasy and reality.

Millett’s focus from miniature spaces to large-scale structures began two years ago with Change–a series of installations housed in her LA-based garage. Shadows, found objects, light, and space were used to compose visual poetry. Since her garage project, Millett has produced installations in New Orleans, Riverside, Santa Cruz, as well as a series of groundbreaking pieces at The Nest residency in Oakland.

Millett’s current body of work, deeply embedded in metaphor, suggests a story of transition from loss to potential love. Her work examines the beauty of impermanence, the power of the unknown, and the illusion of innocence. She uses gestures, objects, and sounds to convey an abstracted reality where the viewer is asked to put together pieces of a mysterious puzzle.

In her first film, The Birth of Bardo, enigmatic figures appear. But, similar to the installations and photographs, much is left to the imagination. Seesaws, wings, chairs, and even a coffin reappear and expand Millett’s vast lexicon of imagery.

Adia Millett was born in Los Angeles, California and received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2001, she moved to New York City for the prestigious Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and the Studio Museum in Harlem residency program. Millett has been a standout in numerous group exhibitions including the well-received “Greater New York” show at PS1 in Long Island City, New York and “Freestyle” at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. In the past, she has been included in exhibitions at the Barbican Gallery in London; The Studio Museum in Harlem; The California African American Museum, Los Angeles; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta; the Santa Monica Museum of Art; the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA; and the Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA. She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. In 2008, she had a major solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. Millett just completed an artist residency at The Nest in Oakland, CA.

For more information, please visit adiamillett.com


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