Milan, Wardell

American, b. 1978

BiographyNew York City-based artist Wardell Milan is known for his interdisciplinary artistic practice. Combining drawing and collage, diorama and photography, he investigates intertwined personal and political histories. Renowned figures from politics, art history, and pop culture stand beside family snapshots in the elaborate dioramas he builds to photograph. Milan’s assemblages have the look of scrapbooks and a compositional complexity that provides a very personal take on the history and politics of race and sexuality in the United States.

Wardell Milan received his MFA in photography from Yale University in 2005, gaining recognition that same year with his first solo exhibition at Taxter and Spengemann Gallery in New York City and his first international show at Galerie Rodolphe Janssen in Brussels. Represented by David Nolan Gallery, NY, Milan has work in numerous collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among others.