Episode 75 features New York-based artist Wardell Milan. He works in mixed media, combining elements of photography,
drawing, painting, and collage. Milan’s practice is conceptually grounded in photography, often using
photographs as initial inspiration behind composition of drawings and collages. Referencing artists such
as Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus, Andres Serrano, Alec Soth, and Eugene Richards, Milan
appropriates, and in some cases re-appropriates the photographs, and thus the bodies depicted. Milan
also uses images and objects to establish allegorical connections between history and contemporary
events.
Milan’s ongoing series “Death, Wine, Revolt,” which combines photography, drawing, painting, collage,
and sculpture to explore themes of over-indulgence, destruction, and revolution. While earlier series
such as “Parisian Landscapes” looked inward, to personal questions of freedom and desire, Milan made
the works on view in response to the turmoil of the global moment.
Works by the artist may be found in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of
Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Denver Art Museum; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Hessel
Museum of Art, Bard College, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Morgan Library &
Museum, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York; UBS Art Collection; Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation, Paris; Hall Art
Foundation; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Milan lives and works in New York.
Artist website ~ https://wardellmilan.com
Bronx Museum - http://www.bronxmuseum.org/exhibitions/wardell-milan-amerika-god-bless-you-if-itand39s-good-to-you
Culture Type - https://www.culturetype.com/2021/07/14/on-view-wardell-milan-amerika-god-bless-you-if-its-good-to-you-at-bronx-museum-of-the-arts-in-new-york/
Musee Magazine - https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/10/22/exhibition-review-wardell-milan-at-fraenkel-gallery
The Brooklyn Rail - https://brooklynrail.org/2020/02/criticspage/Pentimenti
Hyperallergic - https://hyperallergic.com/502980/a-disruptor-of-race-and-sex/
ArtForum - https://www.artforum.com/picks/wardell-milan-78442
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardell_Milan
