Overview

Adia Millett is acclaimed for her deep exploration of basic configurations, diverse expressive practices, and experimentation with mediums. Trained in the fine arts, art history, and the postmodernist theories of cultural studies, Millett conveys her felt concerns in the discourses of the domestic, the public sphere, gender positions, and spirituality through the interdependent form and content of the abstract compositions of her works.

 

Millett received a BFA from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2001, she moved to New York for the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, followed by a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She lived and worked in New York for a decade, exhibiting in high-profile group shows among them “Freestyle” (Studio Museum in Harlem, 2001), “Living Units” (Triple Candie, 2003), “Black President” (The New Museum, 2003), and “Greater New York” (Museum of Modern Art PS1, 2005), and recently in “Where is Here” (Museum of African Diaspora, 2017), and “Black Refractions” (Studio Museum in Harlem, 2019).

 

Recent solo exhibitions include "Wisdom Warriors" (Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose, 2023-2024); "You Will Be Remembered." (Galerie du Monde, 2022); "A Force of Nature" (di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, United States, 2022); “A Matter of Time” (Galerie du Monde, 2020); “Breaking Patterns” (California African American Museum, United States, 2019); and “The Privilege to Breathe” (San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, United States, 2019). Millett has taught as an artist in residence at Columbia College in Chicago, University of California Santa Cruz, Cooper Union, and California College of the Arts. She currently lives and works in Oakland, California.

Works
  • Adia Millett, "You Will Be Remembered." (Patchwork), 2022
    "You Will Be Remembered." (Patchwork), 2022
  • Adia Millett, 2nd Cup, 2022
    2nd Cup, 2022
  • Adia Millett, Bird in Flight, 2020
    Bird in Flight, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Boundaries, 2021
    Boundaries, 2021
  • Adia Millett, Cobalt Sky, 2023
    Cobalt Sky, 2023
  • Adia Millett, Everything and Nothing, 2020
    Everything and Nothing, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Grandfather, 2020
    Grandfather, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Kind of Blue, 2021
    Kind of Blue, 2021
  • Adia Millett, Projection, Not Reflection, 2020
    Projection, Not Reflection, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Remember, 2022
    Remember, 2022
  • Adia Millett, Shield of the Emotional, 2023
    Shield of the Emotional, 2023
  • Adia Millett, Shield of the Spiritual, 2023
    Shield of the Spiritual, 2023
  • Adia Millett, Silver Lining (Night), 2021
    Silver Lining (Night), 2021
  • Adia Millett, Snake in the Fire, 2022
    Snake in the Fire, 2022
  • Adia Millett, Still Standing, 2022
    Still Standing, 2022
  • Adia Millett, Strata, 2022
    Strata, 2022
  • Adia Millett, SUN (quilted Ancestor), 2022
    SUN (quilted Ancestor), 2022
  • Adia Millett, Sweet Potato Sky, 2022
    Sweet Potato Sky, 2022
  • Adia Millett, The Movement, 2020
    The Movement, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Three Windows, 2015
    Three Windows, 2015
  • Adia Millett, Transformation of Labor, 2019
    Transformation of Labor, 2019
  • Adia Millett, Visionary, 2023
    Visionary, 2023
  • Adia Millett, Water On the Other Side, 2020
    Water On the Other Side, 2020
  • Adia Millett, Yoni River, 2023
    Yoni River, 2023
Exhibitions
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