Art born of place
Oakland-based artist Aida Millet spent six months in intermittent residency at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, roaming the vast grounds collecting images, materials and sounds for a series of works exploring ancestral connection to the earth. The result is the exhibition Adia Millet: Force of Nature, up now through October 30.
“di Rosa was thrilled to work with Millett, a nationally-recognized artist whose vivid paintings and textiles have garnered widespread praise, by granting her unprecedented access to our site,” said Executive Director Kate Eilertsen. The interaction inspired new works in several mediums.
“Her reverence for the strange beauty of our landscape – scarred by fire and drought and yet insistently teeming with life – is profoundly inspiring.”
From paintings and textiles to sculpture and sound installation, Millet creates bright, fractal compositions that skirt the boundary between landscape, figure and abstraction. The works are animated by recurring imagery evoking, she says, “earth, water, air and sun – the elements that birthed us and keep us alive.”
Millett, who is represented by Traywick Contemporary, received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2019, her solo exhibition, Breaking Patterns, at the California African American Museum, was widely covered and well-received. She has also exhibited at the Craft and Folk Museum in Los Angeles; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta; the Santa Monica Museum of Art; and the Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans.
di Rosa is commemorating its 25th Anniversary this year with a series of special events ranging from artist talks and films to concerts and theatrical performances. On December 3, the festivities will culminate with a 25th Anniversary Celebration Gala honoring Eleanor Coppola and Lynn Hershman Leeson for their extraordinary lives in the arts. A complete listing of 25th Anniversary events can be found on the 25th Anniversary webpage.
di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is located at 5200 Sonoma Highway, between Sonoma and Napa. Its 217 acres provide a spectacular setting for the organization’s collection of some 1,600 artworks – one of the leading collections of art produced in Northern California since 1960.
The campus is open to the public Friday and Sunday from 11 AM to 4 PM, Saturday 11 AM – 5 PM through Labor Day weekend, and by appointment Tuesday through Thursday. For more information visit www.dirosaart.org.
Photos at the opening reception by Kaethy Kennedy
