From a massive, wall-covering maquette depiction of the White House to a video of a man in a cheap Iron Man mask scrubbing down a cemetery, the Columbia Museum of Art’s new exhibition has no shortage of variety.
The exhibition is titled “RodneyMcMillian: A Son of the Soil” after its central artist. It will open to the public Saturday, March 21.
Raised in Columbia and based in Los Angeles, California, teaching at UCLA, McMillian’s work focuses on history, landscape and politics, having been displayed in several major American cities, along with the MARTa Herford Museum in Herford, Germany.
CMA Senior Curator Michael Neumeister said McMillian was enthusiastic about launching an exhibition in his hometown.
“This was a moment for him to show his work to this community at scale, at a scale that no one here had ever seen before,” Neumeister said. “He’s able to develop exhibitions that really respond to the location and respond to the place.”
CMA Executive Director Della Watkins said McMillian’s work is driven by a commitment to his Southern roots and a passionate interest in history.
“He’s connecting and exploring,” Watkins said. “That’s a back-and-forth conversation in his artwork.”
McMillian favors repurposed items over traditional canvases, with many of his paintings being made on things such as blankets and bed sheets and quilts with the thrift store tag left on. Those are accompanied by sculptures and video.
Despite the contrasting materials, subjects and often abstract nature of McMillian’s work, Neumeister said the works are always carefully constructed with themes at their center.
“He thinks of it (landscape) both as a physical space, like geographical and also as an ideological position,” Neumeister said. “He’s interested in the relationship between bodies and the landscapes as well. He’s interested in the South and the relationship between Southern politics and National politics.”
Neumeister said McMillian’s work is often overtly political, inviting conversations about both local and national politics, looking to draw connections between the two.
“Rodney is extremely deliberate and intentional about the content that he incorporates into his work,” Neumeister said. “It’s something I think, as a curator and as a visitor, is really interesting and rewarding.”
Museum Deputy Director and Director of External Relations Joelle Ryan-Cook said one of the defining traits of McMillian's work is an ability to inspire the same kind of curiosity he feels when creating art in its viewers, something the museum deeply values.
“How do you generate conversations? How do you ask questions? How do you pique somebody’sinterest about something they hadn’t thought about beforehand?” Cook said. “Rodney’s work does that really well, and asking us to think about South Carolina history, South Carolina landscape, the people of South Carolina, how a national stage hits that.”
Neumeister said the opening of this exhibition will continue a strong year for the CMA following its 75th anniversary celebration in January.
“It feels exciting,” Neumeister said. “I love that this show is up in close proximity to the debut of the permanent collection to get people engaged and thinking about this museum in a new way.”
The exhibition will open on Saturday, March 21 to members at 9 a.m. and to the public at 10 a.m. It will close on June 28. The museum will also host a 1-hour discussion with the artist at 2 p.m., with registration required.