The Oakland Museum of California Presents "Michael C. McMillen ~ Train of Thought"

Written by Thomas Thatcher Friday, 29 July 2011 19:43

Oakland, CA.- The Oakland Museum of California is proud to present "Michael C. McMillen: Train of Thought" from April 16th until August 14th 2011. Spanning the 40-year career of the internationally renowned Southern California-based mixed-media artist, the exhibition features large-scale multisensory installations, assemblages, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and films that invite viewers into a made-up world, a skill for which McMillen is best known. Part sculptor, installation artist, printmaker, and cultural anthropologist, McMillen has been creating environmental installations with architectural references that deal with themes of time, change, and illusion since the 1970s. Opening in stages, with large-scale installations Lighthouse and Pavilion of Rain (a constructed habitat featuring rain pouring down on a shack of corrugated metal surrounded by a 30-foot pool of water) currently on view, the exhibition features work from OMCA's holdings as well as select loans from private collections. A 190-page catalog accompanies the exhibition and will be for sale in the OMCA Store.

Using cast-offs from everyday life as his primary material resource, Michael C. McMillen has been making large-scale constructed environments, mixed-media sculptures and installations since the early 1970s (he earned his MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles). Born in Los Angeles in 1946, McMillen began his career in the film industry, building props and creating special effects for movies such as Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like films, McMillen's fastidiously constructed works function as portals into other worlds, allowing us to self-consciously explore our relationship to time, place and narrative.



One of McMillen's most beloved and best-known works is "The Central Meridian" (1981), (also known as "The Garage"), which is on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This life-sized simulacrum of a cluttered 1950s era garage functions something like a time machine or a time capsule, transporting viewers to another era replete with musty odors, dusty surfaces and an idiosyncratic collection of objects. More recently, McMillen has been concerned with the relationship between time, change and illusion. In the tradition of California assemblage, he combines objects in surrealistic ways that invite associative, metaphorical reads rather than specific histories or narratives.

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) brings together collections of art, history and natural science under one roof to tell the extraordinary stories of California and its people. OMCA connects collections and programs across disciplines, advancing an integrated, multilayered understanding of this ever-evolving state. With more than 1.8 million objects, OMCA is a leading cultural institution of the Bay Area and a resource for the research and understanding of California's dynamic cultural and environmental heritage. When the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) first opened its doors more than forty years ago, it brought together three historically independent disciplines—art, history, and natural sciences—under one roof. This progressive multidisciplinary approach was to celebrate the many facets of California. Our collections—comprising more than 1.8 million objects including seminal art works, historical artifacts, ethnographic objects, natural specimens, and photographs—and our programs explore and reveal the factors that shape California character and identity, from its extraordinary natural landscapes, to successive waves of migration, to its unique culture of creativity and innovation. OMCA has reopened its galleries after a transformation that touches almost every aspect of the 300,000 square-foot Museum and builds on the founders' original multidisciplinary and civic-minded intent by improving integration of OMCA's collections and programs, strengthening its role as a public forum, and creating new opportunities for visitor participation. The collections are animated by innovative interpretive tools and interactive features; and new gathering spaces and program areas engage visitors and encourage them to share their own perspectives, questions, and stories. OMCA nurtures its deep ties to the community by offering many educational and outreach programs. We welcome schools, scholars, local audiences, and all visitors to participate in our events and activities and to discover their place in California's past, present, and future. Visit the museum's website at ... http://museumca.org

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