Biography

Artist Dan Mills (b. 1956, Waterloo, New York) lives and works in Maine. He had concurrent parallel careers for many years, also serving as an influential curator and academic museum director before he returned to a focus on his studio practice. Mills has had solo exhibitions throughout the US including: at Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston (2021); Herron School of Art + Design, Indianapolis (2020); Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire (2020); Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland (2019); Chicago Cultural Center (2012); Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (2012, 2007); Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, China (2009-10); Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica (2009); and Northern Illinois University Art Museum, Chicago (2002).

Works by Mills have been curated into major group exhibitions including: Counter Cartographies: Living the Land, Anchorage Museum, Alaska (2021-22); 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); Lines in the Earth: Maps, Power, and the Imagination, Sun Valley Center for the Arts (2007); Long March: Yan'an Project Retrospective, Long March Space, Factory 798, Beijing (2007); What War?, White Box, New York (2006); and Misleading Trails, which opened in Beijing then traveled to eight US institutions (2004-06).

Mills is a frequent visiting artist, critic, curator, and speaker. His work is found in collections including: the British Library, London; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago; Osher Map Library, University of Southern Maine; University of Richmond Museums, and academic institutions throughout the U.S.