Oakland, CA - The Mills College Art Museum is preparing for a major expansion with high profile exhibits of international contemporary and emerging artists, and a series of lectures beginning Saturday, September 9, 2006. The Museum plans to add a new wing featuring contemporary art and new media, and a national search for a new director is underway.

PARTICULATE MATTER
“Particulate Matter,” the debut exhibit, brings together the work of six contemporary American and European artists who address conditions of overload in modern life: Andrea Bowers, Chris Finley, Karl Haendel, Florian Maier-Aichen, Danica Phelps, and Pamela Wilson-Ryckman. The show runs from September 9 - December 10, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 9, 5 – 7 pm. A curator’s walk-through precedes the reception at 4 pm.

Organized by ArtForum critic and Mills art faculty member Glen Helfand, the show refers to a term often used in discussions of environmental issues - tiny particles that are expelled into the air to form smog. In relation to the exhibition, it offers a rich metaphor for objects that are created with a mass of parts, informed by political consciousness and attempts to break down issues and phenomenon – think global warming – that are too massive to be addressed as a single gesture or discussion.

“The artists in this exhibition grapple with the vast tumultuousness of contemporary life,” says Helfand. “The work is as bracing as it is compelling and beautiful.”

This exhibition marks the Bay Area debut of Los Angeles artist Karl Haendel who creates large, dramatic installations of oversized drawings of newspaper and magazine images. Florian Maier-Aichen, a photographer currently living in Cologne, Germany, is exhibiting a group of digitally enhanced landscape photographs that eerily amplify the tensions between nature and culture. This is his first Bay Area show.

New York artist Danica Phelps addresses the compounding nature of commonplace experience with a series of drawings charting her expenses during an emotionally dramatic month. Los Angeles artist Andrea Bowers explores the fate and promise of political activism in a series of sculptures incorporating vintage protest buttons.

Chris Finley, who lives and works in the Bay Area, creates paintings of images filtered through a computer program and painted by hand. San Francisco’s Pamela Wilson-Ryckman depicts scenes of disaster and war in haunting, poetic watercolors.

Two participating artists will give lectures about their work to accompany “Particulate Matter,” Karl Haendel September 27, and, Pamela Wilson-Ryckman November 13. The lectures take place at 7 pm in Danforth Hall, Art Building, on the Mills campus.

"Particulate Matter” is rounded out by a small gallery containing a selection of modern and contemporary photographs from the collection of the Mills College Art Museum. The exhibit will include important works by: Tina Modotti, Man Ray, Joel Sternfeld, Olafur  Eliasson, Catherine Yass, among others.

A 32-page catalogue created by award-winning designer Martin Venezky/Appetite Engineers will accompany “Particulate Matter.”  

EMERGING ARTIST EXHIBITS
Continuing the Museum’s commitment to highlight emerging Bay Area artists, the show will also include a series of three rotating solo exhibitions by artists whose work relates to the larger themes of the exhibition:

Daniel Tierney: exhibit September 9 - October 8; artist talk: Saturday, September 9, 4:30-5 pm; opening reception 5 -7 pm.

Elise Irving: exhibit October 14 - November 5; artist talk: Saturday, October 14, 4:30 - 5 pm; opening reception 5 -7 pm.

Lisa K. Blatt: exhibit November 11- December 10; artist talk: Saturday, November 11, 4:30-5 pm; opening reception 5 -7 pm.

WINTER/SPRING EXHIBIT
The Mills College Art Museum will feature a second major exhibit beginning in mid-January 2007, guest curated by Janet Bishop, curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit will focus on international and national contemporary women artists, and will be accompanied by a 64-page catalogue designed by Venezky/Appetite Engineers.

All events are free and open to the public at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94613. Museum hours: Tuesdays, and Thursday through Saturday 11 – 4 pm; Wednesday 11  –7:30 pm, Sunday 12 – 4 pm.

Note to the media: Glen Helfand is available for press walk-throughs and interviews by appointment. For more information about any aspect of the exhibits please call: 510.430.2164 or email museum@mills.edu.

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse liberal arts colleges. The Princeton Review selected Mills as one of 11 colleges for first-time inclusion in its Best 361 Colleges in 2005. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

PRESS CONTACT:
Deborah Dallinger
Communications Consultant
925.788.9131