EMPIRE ART
selections from from several series
from the 2000s
In the “Empire” paintings battle scenes and military weapons are transformed into decorative near-abstractions, a comment on the aestheticization of our more destructive impulses.
Finally, the Empire Paintings are abstracted compositions of military topographies and battle imagery. For this series, Mills creates nearly benign landscapes of war that are executed as painterly and visually seductive images, complete with color coordinated borders. Again, the works are like Rorschach tests that serve as a gauge of the viewer’s attitudes toward military violence in the service of conquest.
—Eleanor Heartney, “Delusions of Grandeur,” Meditations on Empire exhibition catalogue, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, and Mandeville Gallery, Union College, 2009-10.
Landscape No. 4 (Tank on Fire), 2008-09, acrylic on canvas, 47 x 78 inches (no longer exists)
Landscape No. 3 (Rocket Launcher), 2008, acrylic on canvas , 56 x 56 inches
Landscape No. 2 (Anti-Armor Missile), 2008, acrylic on canvas, 44 1/2 x 53 inshes
United States Empire (Cover), 2004, acrylic, collage and graphite on paper, 14 3/4 x 21 5/8 inches. Private collection, Chicago
United States Empire (Covet), 2004, acrylic, collage and graphite on paper, 14 3/4 x 21 5/8 inches. Collection of Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA
United States Empire (Coven), 2004, acrylic, collage and graphite on paper, 14 3/4 x 21 5/8 inches
USA to Assault Rifle, 2005, acrylic and graphite on paper,18 1/2 x 91 1/2 inches
USA to Attack Helicopter, 2005, acrylic and graphite on paper,18 1/2 x 91 1/2 inches
USA to Raptor, 2005, acrylic and graphite on paper,18 1/2 x 91 1/2 inches. Morph Series. Collection of Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, University of Tennessee
His World View, 2004, acrylic and collage on paper, 42 x 72 3/4 inches
Mine!, 2004, acrylic on paper, 48 5/8 x 40 5/8 inches