Gabriel Mills: Aunechei

Gabriel Mills’ paintings are, in many ways, personal responses — responses to life events, to language, to music, and to one another. Mills simultaneously converses with the viewer while creating a dialogue within the work itself. His paintings are often paired (or grouped) together as if in conversation, one responding to the other or creating a tension which the other reflects. We are forced to slow down, look carefully, and seek the meaning in the union of the arranged picture planes. Once discovered, our responses will be unique depending on our individual reference points as well as our own necessary paths for personal growth. The physicality of Mills’ work, with its exceptionally thick layers of oil paint and its visible, broad brushstrokes, seems to belie the artist’s intention that each mark represents the ethereal — thoughtful introspection. Contradiction is intentional as the artist has stated, “I’m interested in forms and ideas that hold opposites close together. So much of life is that way.” Using one form to help illumine the other, Mills employs the act of painting as a path to clarity. The artist states, “I’m bringing my full self to each work, to then go on an arduous journey. The destination isn’t ever a physical location; it’s an internal realization.” Aesthetic experience that touches one’s soul is not only “an affirmation of the artist’s being,” as Mills posits, but of the receptive viewer’s as well. — Allison C. Smith, Ph.D., Professor, Art History and Chair, Art History and Humanities, Johnson County Community College Museum Hours FREE ADMISSION Tue., Fri., Sat.: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed., Thu.: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun.: noon-5 p.m. Mon. and JCCC Holidays: Closed