Building upon a conceptual foundation in photography, Milan’s practice encompasses drawing, collage, and painting to explore ideas of the body, beauty, and the unconscious. The composite, fragmented figures in his work inhabit ambiguous landscapes of painted abstraction, navigating themselves through recontextualized historical and contemporary environments. Through them, the body—the physical, the psychological, and the photographic body—is understood as a multi-faceted, intersecting site of gender, race, sexuality, and history.
Wardell Milan received his BFA from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2001) and his MFA from Yale University (2004), both in Photography. Notable solo exhibitions of his work include Wardell Milan: Recent Work at the Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College (2022-23), and America. God Bless You If It’s Good To You, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2021).
