2007
Johnson Prize Winner
Rodney McMillian
Rodney McMillian was born in 1969 in Columbia, South Carolina. He received his MFA in 2002 from the California Institute of the
Arts, Valencia. McMillian's complex artistic practice embodies a wide range of media and techniques. An overarching concern in
his work is the relationship between language, aesthetics and content. His use of images and materials in his sculptures,
videos, and paintings, his fascination with still life painting, and his incorporation of post-consumer objects all point to a
highly poetic critique and investigation of social history and culture. McMillian's work has been included in numerous group
exhibitions worldwide, including Ordinary Culture: Heikes/Helms/McMillian, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;
Painting in Tongues, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the traveling exhibition Uncertain States of America,
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Art, Oslo; USA Today, Royal Academy of Art, London; Menschensgladbach: Neue Ankäufe und Leihgaben,
Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Frequency,
Studio Museum in Harlem; White Noise, Redcat, Los Angeles; FADE: African American Artists in Los Angeles, Luckman,
Los Angeles; and Gibt's mich wirklich: Vier Raeume aus der Sammlung Schuermann, K21, Düsseldorf. He has shown his work in
solo exhibitions at Triple Candie, New York and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany. He currently lives and works in
Los Angeles.
The 2007 William H. Johnson Prize jury consisted of Clara Kim, Gallery Director & Curator, REDCAT; Elsa Longhauser, Executive Director and Curator, Santa Monica Museum of Art; Dave McKenzie, artist; and Kori Newkirk, artist.
