Project Space: Jeff McMillan
Jeff McMillan works with found materials and objects—cardboard boxes, second-hand paintings, used papers or fabrics, books—and manipulates them deliberately and simply with paint or ink, creating work that rests between painting and sculpture. In the series Biblio, for example, McMillan carefully wrapped in paper books he had brought with him when he moved from Texas to the U.K. in the late 1990s. He dipped them, edge by edge, into ink and thin oil paint. Once dry, he unfolded the paper, resulting in abstract compositions that speak both to art history and to the physicality of the objects and materials used.
McMillan intends for his Project Space studio to serve as a holding ground for—and site of experimentation with—found objects and residual materials gleaned from forays outside of the Headlands campus. A guiding question McMillan has posed for himself as he begins work in Project Space is if it is possible to make a non-fiction work, responding to the innate qualities of found materials to render an object or image “true” to itself.
Project Space presents work in progress created by select Artists in Residence each season, as well as occasional group exhibitions by guest curators. Project Space is a place of exchange among artists and visitors—a place where ideas are germinated, conversations are shared, and new work is made. Visitors are invited to engage with the space throughout various stages of making, witnessing the artistic process unfold over time.
Headlands assess Covid safety protocol on an ongoing basis and may require mask wearing indoors regardless of vaccination status. Masks will be available on site. Project Space is on the third floor of Building 944 and is currently accessible only by stairs.
Image: Jeff McMillan, work in progress, Lubbock County, Texas, June 2022; 10 paintings, oil on linen, each 79 x 65 in.
