Wardell Milan’s photograph Tropics was a standout from the hugely popular Taking Aim: Selections from the Elliot L. Perry Collection at Clough-Hanson Gallery in 2007. His solo show at Rhodes College will present a mixture of photographs with collage images. He uses the medium of photography to present images of his carefully crafted, semi-autobiographical dioramas that draw from myriad sources ranging from pop culture to snapshots of his own family. The densely packed images provide a glimpse into the artist’s obsessions and desires. While the photographs usually feature a conglomeration of figures, the recent collage works in Landscapes! Romance, Rottenness feature a single figure. Milan draws from fashion, landscape & garden, and travel books and magazines to construct his beautiful, intricate collages.
A native Tennessean, Wardell Milan received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee and went on to receive his MFA in photography from Yale University. In 2006 he was an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in 2007. His work was been featured in Frequency at the Studio Museum in Harlem. His work has been shown around the world including the Galerie Nordne Zidoun in Paris, Context Galleries in Northern Ireland, Ardnt & Partner in Berlin, the Black Alphabet show at the National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland as well as a number of shows in New York. His work has been featured in the New York Times, ArtForum, and the Villiage Voice. Additional images of Milan’s work can be found on his website www.wardellmilan.com.