Judy Millar
Biography
Working with the process of subtraction to create gestural oil and acrylic paintings, Judy Millar investigates the relationships between painting, the body, and the three-dimensional space.
At first glance, the expressive quality of Millar's work is reminiscent of mid-20th century action paintings; indeed, she engages with the canvas on the floor like Jackson Pollock, using her entire body in the process of vigorous mark-making. However, Millar's treatment of paint diverges from the additive gestures of action painters in that she employs rags or squeegees to erase, wipe, or scrape paint off the canvas. For example, the dynamic marks in Sky Drops (2017)—seemingly dancing or swimming against the background of sky blue and pink—are a result of such subtraction. Millar rejects gesture as a means of personal expression, stating in her 2016 conversation with Ocula Magazine that 'my work is much more about drawing; it is about looking and seeing, less about "expressing"'.
Equally interested in scale and a painting's impact on its environment, Millar often digitally enlarges her paintings and turns them into monumental structures. She first adopted this method with Giraffe-Bottle-Gun (2009), a large-scale installation presented at the 53rd Venice Biennale, for which she fitted the interiors of the Neoclassical La Maddalena church with sized-up prints of her paintings made from a billboard printer. Some of the original paintings were framed and hung on the columns alongside the collection of the church, while the reproductions were cut into irregular geometric shapes, attached to wooden constructions, and erected in a labyrinthine formation. The reproduced works had been painted with a colour palette of mainly black, white, and shocking orange and yellow—a stark contrast to the dominantly subdued, white theme of the house of prayer. Immersed in the swirls of imposing scale and forceful colours, the viewer was compelled to move their bodies around the geometric walls to experience Millar's work.
Miliar similarly introduced a sense of vitality to the otherwise static architecture of the South Atrium in Auckland Art Gallery Toi Tāmaki with Rock Drop (installed 2017–2019). The work comprises an enormous sculpture suspended from the ceiling which touches parts of the stairs, the floor and the wall. Made up of many plywood structures that cut into each other like puzzle pieces, the work's surfaces are covered with digital reproductions of Millar's paintings. First painted on small pieces of paper, the original images were twisted, photographed, and blown up on a computer. There are two patterns on the sculpture: it appears colourful and lively when viewed from the top of the stairs, the replicated paintings folding and unfolding in an invisible wind; from the bottom, there are no flowing ribbons but black-and-white halftone texture that references the artist's love for comic books. Both the physical sculpture and its two-dimensional imageries morph from different perspectives, entering the surrounding space into a shifting dialogue with the viewer's body.
Millar graduated with a BFA and MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. In 1991, she undertook a postgraduate program at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, Italy, to research the work of Italian artists from the 1960s and '70s. She has been living and working between Auckland and Berlin since moving to Germany in 2005.
Selected exhibitions include Unpainting—Contemporary Abstraction, an international group exhibition of abstract art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); What: Turning the World Inside Out: 30 Years a Painter, a major retrospective of her oeuvre at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (2016); and Time, Space, Existence, the Collateral Event of the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Millar was the Wallace Art Award Paramount Winner in 2002 and a McCahon House Artist in Residence between 2006 and 2007.
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2018 https://ocula.com/artists/judy-millar/
Biography from Wikipedia
Penelope Judith Millar (born 1957) is a New Zealand artist, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand and Berlin, Germany. Millar received a BFA in 1980 and an MFA from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. As recipient of a Scholarship from the Italian Government in 1990, she spent a year in Turin, Italy, where she studied Italian arts of the 1960s and 1970s. Millar is known for her abstract acrylic and oil paintings. While her works may recall Abstract Expressionist paintings, Millar does not consider her paintings as being 'gestural'. In an interview with Ocula in 2016, she said that, "The word that always sets my teeth on edge is ‘gesture.’ Gesture seems like something that comes gushing out from deep inside you. That is not really what I am interested in. My work is much more about drawing; it is about looking and seeing, less about ‘expressing’. I’m using gesture only in the sense that a gesture can communicate something." Millar has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in both New Zealand and Europe and found critical acclaim in the international press. Her painterly style was described as "energetic and overwhelming", and Andrea Hilgenstock calls her paintings "spectacular". Further references can be found in recent publications on New Zealand art. Her works can be found in the collections of the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen [de], Dunedin Public Art Gallery the Auckland Art Gallery, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery, and numerous private collections throughout Europe. She represented New Zealand at the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009. This project is recreated in miniature in the 2014 pop-up book Swell, created in collaboration with paper engineer Phillip Fickling and writer Trish Gribben – this book in turn inspired full-scale pop-up style works for her solo exhibition The Model World and large sculptures for SCAPE and the Auckland Art Gallery. In 2011 she was again part of the Venice Biennale in the collateral event Personal Structures in Palazzo Bembo. Millar is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, Gallery Mark Müller in Zurich, Hamish Morrison Gallery in Berlin, and Sullivan Strumpf, Sydney.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Millar
At first glance, the expressive quality of Millar's work is reminiscent of mid-20th century action paintings; indeed, she engages with the canvas on the floor like Jackson Pollock, using her entire body in the process of vigorous mark-making. However, Millar's treatment of paint diverges from the additive gestures of action painters in that she employs rags or squeegees to erase, wipe, or scrape paint off the canvas. For example, the dynamic marks in Sky Drops (2017)—seemingly dancing or swimming against the background of sky blue and pink—are a result of such subtraction. Millar rejects gesture as a means of personal expression, stating in her 2016 conversation with Ocula Magazine that 'my work is much more about drawing; it is about looking and seeing, less about "expressing"'.
Equally interested in scale and a painting's impact on its environment, Millar often digitally enlarges her paintings and turns them into monumental structures. She first adopted this method with Giraffe-Bottle-Gun (2009), a large-scale installation presented at the 53rd Venice Biennale, for which she fitted the interiors of the Neoclassical La Maddalena church with sized-up prints of her paintings made from a billboard printer. Some of the original paintings were framed and hung on the columns alongside the collection of the church, while the reproductions were cut into irregular geometric shapes, attached to wooden constructions, and erected in a labyrinthine formation. The reproduced works had been painted with a colour palette of mainly black, white, and shocking orange and yellow—a stark contrast to the dominantly subdued, white theme of the house of prayer. Immersed in the swirls of imposing scale and forceful colours, the viewer was compelled to move their bodies around the geometric walls to experience Millar's work.
Miliar similarly introduced a sense of vitality to the otherwise static architecture of the South Atrium in Auckland Art Gallery Toi Tāmaki with Rock Drop (installed 2017–2019). The work comprises an enormous sculpture suspended from the ceiling which touches parts of the stairs, the floor and the wall. Made up of many plywood structures that cut into each other like puzzle pieces, the work's surfaces are covered with digital reproductions of Millar's paintings. First painted on small pieces of paper, the original images were twisted, photographed, and blown up on a computer. There are two patterns on the sculpture: it appears colourful and lively when viewed from the top of the stairs, the replicated paintings folding and unfolding in an invisible wind; from the bottom, there are no flowing ribbons but black-and-white halftone texture that references the artist's love for comic books. Both the physical sculpture and its two-dimensional imageries morph from different perspectives, entering the surrounding space into a shifting dialogue with the viewer's body.
Millar graduated with a BFA and MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. In 1991, she undertook a postgraduate program at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, Italy, to research the work of Italian artists from the 1960s and '70s. She has been living and working between Auckland and Berlin since moving to Germany in 2005.
Selected exhibitions include Unpainting—Contemporary Abstraction, an international group exhibition of abstract art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); What: Turning the World Inside Out: 30 Years a Painter, a major retrospective of her oeuvre at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (2016); and Time, Space, Existence, the Collateral Event of the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Millar was the Wallace Art Award Paramount Winner in 2002 and a McCahon House Artist in Residence between 2006 and 2007.
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2018 https://ocula.com/artists/judy-millar/
Biography from Wikipedia
Penelope Judith Millar (born 1957) is a New Zealand artist, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand and Berlin, Germany. Millar received a BFA in 1980 and an MFA from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. As recipient of a Scholarship from the Italian Government in 1990, she spent a year in Turin, Italy, where she studied Italian arts of the 1960s and 1970s. Millar is known for her abstract acrylic and oil paintings. While her works may recall Abstract Expressionist paintings, Millar does not consider her paintings as being 'gestural'. In an interview with Ocula in 2016, she said that, "The word that always sets my teeth on edge is ‘gesture.’ Gesture seems like something that comes gushing out from deep inside you. That is not really what I am interested in. My work is much more about drawing; it is about looking and seeing, less about ‘expressing’. I’m using gesture only in the sense that a gesture can communicate something." Millar has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in both New Zealand and Europe and found critical acclaim in the international press. Her painterly style was described as "energetic and overwhelming", and Andrea Hilgenstock calls her paintings "spectacular". Further references can be found in recent publications on New Zealand art. Her works can be found in the collections of the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen [de], Dunedin Public Art Gallery the Auckland Art Gallery, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery, and numerous private collections throughout Europe. She represented New Zealand at the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009. This project is recreated in miniature in the 2014 pop-up book Swell, created in collaboration with paper engineer Phillip Fickling and writer Trish Gribben – this book in turn inspired full-scale pop-up style works for her solo exhibition The Model World and large sculptures for SCAPE and the Auckland Art Gallery. In 2011 she was again part of the Venice Biennale in the collateral event Personal Structures in Palazzo Bembo. Millar is represented by Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, Gallery Mark Müller in Zurich, Hamish Morrison Gallery in Berlin, and Sullivan Strumpf, Sydney.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Millar
b.1957
Place Of Birth
Nationality