Contemporary Art Exhibition > Drawings > Wardell Milan
Contemporary Art Exhibition > United States > New York > Harlem > SMH
Wardell Milan, Drawings of Harlem
Studio Museum, Harlem
November 12, 2009 – March 14, 2010
© Wardell Milan, Drawing of Harlem (detail), 2009. Courtesy the artist
Wardell Milan: Drawings of Harlem was on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The suite of more than fifty works on paper illustrates, in panoramic scope, the people, places, storefronts, churches, iconic fixtures and moments that are the essence of this cosmopolitan neighborhood.
Wardell Milan (b. 1978, Knoxville, TN; lives and works in New York, NY) received his BFA from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, and his MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT in 2004. Milan was an artist in residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2006-07 and has exhibited work at PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, Taxter & Spengemann and Sean Kelly Gallery, among others.
© Wardell Milan, Drawing of Harlem (detail), 2009. Courtesy the artist
A merger of the artist’s photographic eye and impressionistic hand, the exhibition featured works on paper based on photographs Wardell Milan took throughout Harlem. Over the past year Milan traversed the neighborhood, pausing in parks and in front of local landmarks and neighborhood street scenes to capture the vistas photographically before reimagining them in his drawings. Some works are loosely drawn, while others display a close attention to detail. Though most are black and white, some feature strokes of color. Representing fleeting moments, the works in Drawings of Harlem bring together contemporary photography and the fundamental artistic practice of drawing.
© Wardell Milan, Drawing of Harlem (detail), 2009. Courtesy the artist
Commissioned and organized by Ali Evans, this exhibition originated from Wardell Milan’s 2008 sketches of Harlem created for the pages of Studio magazine, following his year as an artist in residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Upon Milan’s completion of the sketches, the Museum invited him to continue drawing throughout the following year for this project.
WARDELL MILAN, DRAWINGS OF HARLEM
November 12, 2009 - March 14, 2010
STUDIO MUSEUM HARLEM - SMH
144 West 125th Street
New York, NY 10027
Next Exhibition at SMH
VideoSudio: New Work from France by Yto Barrada, Djamel Kokene, Bouchra Khalili, April 1 - June 27, 2010.
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