DAN MILLS‍ ‍Download Biography

Biography

DAN MILLS has had numerous solo exhibitions, including Human Topographies, which originated at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland in 2019, and traveled to the Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, and Herron Galleries, Herron School of Art + Design, Indianapolis in 2020. Other solo exhibitions include Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston (2021); Montserrat College Art Galleries, Massachusetts (2015); George Billis Gallery, New York (2014); Chicago Cultural Center (2012); Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (2012, 2007); Williams Center Art Gallery, Lafayette College (2010); Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady (2009); Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, China (2009-10); Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica (2009); and UT Downtown Gallery, University of Tennessee (2008), Printworks Gallery, Chicago (2002); NIU Chicago Gallery (2002); William Paterson University (2001); and 76 Varick Gallery, New York (1998).

Work by Mills has been curated into notable group exhibitions including: Seeing Truth: Art, Science, Museums, and Making Knowledge, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut (2023); Counter Cartographies: Living the Land, Anchorage Museum, Alaska (2021-22); Parks & Recreation, Bennington Museum, Vermont (2022); Unsustainable: Planet in Crisis, Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, University of Tennessee (2020); Crooked Data: (Mis)Information in Contemporary Art, University of Richmond Museums (2017); Ideologue, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City (2016); Dissident Futures, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2013-14); Pop Goes the World, Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York (2010); Party Headquarters: Voting is Just the Beginning, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York (2008); Lines in the Earth: Maps, Power, and the Imagination, Sun Valley Museum of Art, Idaho (2007); Long March Yan’an, Factory 798, Beijing (2007); What War?, White Box, New York (2006); and Misleading Trails, China Art Archives & Warehouse, Beijing, traveled the US (2004-06); and Superimpositions, Biggin Gallery, Auburn University (2000). 

Mills is a frequent visiting artist, critic, and speaker. His work has been published in Art New England, Blogcritics, BOMB Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Flash Art International, Hyperallergic, and Los Angeles Times. His work is in collections including: the British Library, London; JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago; the ‘Quin House, Boston; University of California, Los Angeles, University of Tennessee, and numerous other academic institutions.

Mills (b. 1956) studied at Rochester Institute of Technology (B.F.A. 1978) and Northern Illinois University (M.F.A. 1981). Prior to focusing solely on his studio practice, he had concurrent parallel careers as an artist and curator in Chicago between 1981-94, then as an artist and academic museum director/curator in the Northeast for thirty years. His adventurous curatorial projects have been presented at over fifty institutions. Mills lives and works in Lewiston, Maine and also Wellfleet, Massachusetts. dan-mills.net