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WARDELL MILAN: Parisian Landscapes, Blue Zenith,

April 19 - June 14, 2019

WARDELL MILAN: Parisian Landscapes, Blue Zenith

Past exhibition
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
  • PRESS
  • Overview
    WARDELL MILAN, Parisian Landscapes, Blue Zenith

    David Nolan Gallery is pleased to present Parisian Landscapes, Blue Zenith, an exhibition of new works by Wardell Milan. For his second solo exhibition at the gallery, the artist has created large-scale collages, paintings, and various photo-based works. The term “Blue Zenith” is borrowed from a passage in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1836 essay “Nature” describing “the point in which romance and reality meet," a concept that echoes and unravels across Milan’s latest body of work.

    Characteristically diverse in technique, Milan’s practice is conceptually rooted in photography. His image-making across all media finds its origin in photography, as the artist liberally mines from and elaborates on imagery from major historical figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Mapplethorpe, to undersung creators such as Alvin Baltrop, and to everyday sources such as family photographs and the internet. In his unbiased embrace of a variety of sources, Milan levels out classic distinctions between “high” and “low,” encouraging the viewer to attach equal value to a wide range of imagery.

    Frequently, Milan uses photographic sources as a compositional starting point for a given work. A new large-scale collage, entitled When he became close to God. (2019), borrows from an arrangement of figures on a beach in a 1930 photograph by Herbert List, assimilating the relative positioning but recasting the main protagonists with new identities. The artist also extends and complicates the original narrative, introducing into the far distance the figure of a priest (sourced from a Eugene Richards photograph), a naked man seen from behind (via Baltrop), and a group of men engaged in a brawl, which the artist found an image of online.

    The themes and subject matter in Milan’s work oscillate between reflections on current world events and a deeply personal meditation on his own daily life. A work entitled Pulse (2019) is named after the Orlando, Florida nightclub, and imagines the moments immediately before it witnessed a deadly incidence of violence. Through the work, Milan considers spaces created by the disenfranchised and how these come under threat. In another work, entitled I can't carry you, you are going to make me fall… (2019), the artist contemplates a series of events in his recent personal life.

    A group of photo-based works originated from a residency that Milan undertook in Captiva, Florida. Capturing the beauty of the natural landscape – the trees and beaches – he used a large format camera to document his surroundings. Using this backdrop, the artist worked onto the physical surface of the printed photograph, introducing figures, and a range of gestural marks. The distinctive blue constellations in each of these works reference the unique courtship behavior of the bowerbirds. In this bird family, the males collect brightly colored objects to appear desirable and attract mates. Milan imbues these works with a sense of this tender process, where objects of affection are treasured and exalted.

    Culled from Mapplethorpe’s Black Book, Milan’s figures are constructed from cut-and-pasted elements reclaimed from Mapplethorpe’s classic book. Inspired by a lyric in Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo – “I just want to feel liberated” – Milan re-empowers Mapplethorpe’s original subjects, presenting them uninhibited in idyllic settings.

     

    Works by Wardell Milan (b. 1977) 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; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Milan lives and works in New York.

  • Installation Views
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    • Wardell Milan Bobby Love, 2018 cut-and-pasted printed paper 11 3/4 x 10 7/8 in 29.8 x 27.6 cm
      Wardell Milan
      Bobby Love, 2018
      cut-and-pasted printed paper
      11 3/4 x 10 7/8 in
      29.8 x 27.6 cm
    • Wardell Milan The most beautiful thoughts are sometimes beside the darkest; Your smell lingers on the bed. I bury my head in a getaway dream, 2017 silver gelatin prints each framed: 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 in (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm) Edition of 3, with 2 APs
      Wardell Milan
      The most beautiful thoughts are sometimes beside the darkest; Your smell lingers on the bed. I bury my head in a getaway dream, 2017
      silver gelatin prints
      each framed: 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 in (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm)
      Edition of 3, with 2 APs
    • Wardell Milan Macho, 2017 silver gelatin print framed: 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 in (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm) Edition of 3, with 2 APs
      Wardell Milan
      Macho, 2017
      silver gelatin print
      framed: 40 x 40 x 1 3/4 in (101.6 x 101.6 x 4.4 cm)
      Edition of 3, with 2 APs
    • Wardell Milan In Euphoria, we find two Kung Fu Warriors fumbling towards a reconciliation., 2019 charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print 58 1/2 x 42 7/8 in (148.6 x 108.7 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      In Euphoria, we find two Kung Fu Warriors fumbling towards a reconciliation., 2019
      charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print
      58 1/2 x 42 7/8 in (148.6 x 108.7 cm)
    • Wardell Milan When he became close to God., 2019 charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper 86 5/8 x 83 1/2 in (220 x 212.1 cm) framed: 91 x 88 x 3 1/4 in (231.1 x 223.5 x 8.3 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      When he became close to God., 2019
      charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper
      86 5/8 x 83 1/2 in (220 x 212.1 cm)
      framed: 91 x 88 x 3 1/4 in (231.1 x 223.5 x 8.3 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Pulse, 2019 charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper 66 7/8 x 83 1/2 in (169.9 x 212.1 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Pulse, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper
      66 7/8 x 83 1/2 in (169.9 x 212.1 cm)
    • Wardell Milan 3 Warriors: Kung Fu Kelvin, Samurai Seitu, and King Kunta Kinte, 2019 charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print 38 7/8 x 58 3/8 in (98.7 x 148.3 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      3 Warriors: Kung Fu Kelvin, Samurai Seitu, and King Kunta Kinte, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print
      38 7/8 x 58 3/8 in (98.7 x 148.3 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Niggas turn into Gods, 2019 charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print 41 x 55 3/4 in (104.1 x 141.4 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Niggas turn into Gods, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-pasted paper on inkjet print
      41 x 55 3/4 in (104.1 x 141.4 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Holy Holly, 2019 charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper 41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in (105.4 x 74.9 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Holy Holly, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper
      41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in (105.4 x 74.9 cm)
    • Wardell Milan I can't carry you, you are going to make me fall…, 2019 charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper 41 3/4 x 29 1/2 in (106 x 74.9 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      I can't carry you, you are going to make me fall…, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper
      41 3/4 x 29 1/2 in (106 x 74.9 cm)
    • Wardell Milan In the comfort of…, 2019 charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper 49 1/2 x 38 in (125.7 x 96.4 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      In the comfort of…, 2019
      charcoal, graphite, pastel, oil pastel, acrylic paint, cut-and-pasted paper on hand dyed paper
      49 1/2 x 38 in (125.7 x 96.4 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Blue Fever no. 2, 2019 charcoal, acrylic, oil on board 36 x 30 in (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Blue Fever no. 2, 2019
      charcoal, acrylic, oil on board
      36 x 30 in (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Blue Fever no. 1, 2019 charcoal, acrylic, oil on board 30 x 24 in (76.2 x 61 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Blue Fever no. 1, 2019
      charcoal, acrylic, oil on board
      30 x 24 in (76.2 x 61 cm)
    • Wardell Milan Every man gets sad, he does. I am no exception to this., 2019 charcoal, acrylic, oil on board 20 x 30 in (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
      Wardell Milan
      Every man gets sad, he does. I am no exception to this., 2019
      charcoal, acrylic, oil on board
      20 x 30 in (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
  • PRESS

    • News

      A Disruptor of Race and Sex

      John Yau · Hyperallergic June 2, 2019
      In a time when many artists are content to establish one-to-one correspondences between signifier and signified, sign and meaning, Wardell Milan’s ambiguity is refreshing. I did not know of this...
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