Portate Bien

Jackie Milad

October 26th - November 26th

In Portate Bien, Milad adroitly compiles multiple signifiers, collapsing them into a singular plane filled with disembodied body parts. The surfaces of Milad's works are thick with diverse layers and symbols. Fragments of language slide between scales, tracks and fences, while haunted monoliths, and neon specters irreverently strut. Throughout the works, the omnipresence of a gaze simultaneously over and underlays these visual collections. Is it The Eye, the artist turning the gaze upon the viewer, or a reflection of the viewers gaze back onto them? Or, is the seeing entity something else entirely, animated into life through the ritual labor of the artist.

Jackie Milad (Baltimore City, MD) Creates textured collage and drawing works on paper and canvas. Milad has been featured in group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Select exhibitions include: The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD), C. Grimaldis Gallery (Baltimore,MD), Grizzly Grizzly (Philadelphia, PA), Phoebe Projects curated by Alex Ebstein (Baltimore, MD), Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA), Museo de Arte de Mazatlan (Mazatlan, MX), DiFOCUR de Sinaloa Galleria (Culiacan, MX), and Transmitter (Brooklyn, NY). Milad is a three-time recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from Maryland State Arts Council. In 2019 she was honored as a finalist for the prestigious Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize. Milad received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, and her MFA from Towson University. Besides her active studio practice, Jackie Milad has an extensive career as a curator and educator, where she has committed many years to the education and support of emerging artists.

Jackie Milad has constructed and archived hundreds of works on paper. Within the past five years she has begun to reassess the purpose of this personal archive, cutting into individual pieces to use as collage material for newer drawings. Through this labor, Milad intentionally challenges the value and purpose of the “completed” works, which are intentionally altered,  and then alterned again, allowing Milad to engage in an ongoing regenerative, and even a spiritual process. Removing the work from their static projections allows Milad to create directly responsive works, which serve as a record of internal and external stimuli, centering personal experiences growing up as an Egyptian-Honduran-American.