Judy Millar
Biography
Judy Millar, The Wave Cry, The Wind Cry, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 2300 x 25500m
Judy Millar, Waking at Dawn, 2023, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1400 x 950mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2001, acrylic and oil on aluminium, 550 x 760mm
Judy Millar, 5th Kyiv Biennial: Against the Logic of War, 2023, Installation view, Augarten Contemporary, Vienna, Photo: eSeL.at – Joanna Pianka
Judy Millar, Water On Your Forehead, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 1800 x 1400mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2005, acrylic oil on canvas, 1350 x 1050mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2004, acrylic and oil on aluminium, 770 x 510mm
Judy Millar, Underwing, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 2100 x 800mm
Judy Millar, Blow Away Spell, 2022, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Learning to Eat Fire, 2022, acrylic and oil on canvas 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Pink Trap, 2020, acrylic on vinyl, 2145 x 6100mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnet
Judy Millar, Big Skies Tonight, 2020, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2100 x 1600mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Action Movie, 2021 Installation view, City Gallery Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Cheska Brown
Judy Millar, Action Movie, 2021 Installation view, City Gallery Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Cheska Brown
Judy Millar, Cave, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2100 x 1550mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, Rock Drop, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Aotearoa. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Space Work 7, 2014 Installation view, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Be Do Be Do Be Do, 2013 Installation view, IMA, Brisbane, Australia Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, The Rainbow Loop, 2012 Installation view, Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany
Judy Millar, A Better Life, 2010 Installation view, Spielhaus Morrison Galerie, Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar, Waking at Dawn, 2023, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1400 x 950mm
Judy Millar, 5th Kyiv Biennial: Against the Logic of War, 2023, Installation view, Augarten Contemporary, Vienna, Photo: eSeL.at – Joanna Pianka
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2005, acrylic oil on canvas, 1350 x 1050mm
Judy Millar, Underwing, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 2100 x 800mm
Judy Millar, Learning to Eat Fire, 2022, acrylic and oil on canvas 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Big Skies Tonight, 2020, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2100 x 1600mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Action Movie, 2021 Installation view, City Gallery Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Cheska Brown
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, Rock Drop, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Aotearoa. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Be Do Be Do Be Do, 2013 Installation view, IMA, Brisbane, Australia Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, A Better Life, 2010 Installation view, Spielhaus Morrison Galerie, Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar
Born 1957, lives and works in Auckland (NZ)
Material, action, trace. In a myriad of ways and with a diverse range of tools, Judy Millar applies and removes paint in order to explore embodied acts of making and how these enact particular forms of consciousness. With a palette made up of unexpected combinations of colour, Millar often plays with the tension between background and foreground. Directional strokes move in and out of nebulous clouds, blocks and intensities of hue. Painting at the service of gestures, for Millar space becomes a surface to be painted, one which can grow, extend and occupy built environments. Taking up space, works by Millar are often large-scale, engaging with installation they dwarf those who encounter them, acting as a reminder that people belong to gestures and that painting can be a shift away from the self.
Millar graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. In 2009 Millar was selected to represent New Zealand at the 53rd Venice Biennale where she exhibited Giraffe-Bottle-Gun at the New Zealand pavilion. Sharing time between studios in Berlin, Germany and Anawhata in Aotearoa, Millar has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally for more than three decades. Recent solo exhibitions include: Cry Sea, Cry Sky, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington (2024); Questions I have Asked Myself, Galerie Mark Mueller, Zurich, Switzerland (2022); Action Movie, City Gallery, Wellington (2021); The Future and the Past Perfect, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland (2019) and Rock Drop, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2017). Her work has been included in group presentations: Spotlight, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2023–2024); huikaau: where currents meet, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (2024); Against the Logic of War: 5th Kyiv Biennial, Augarten Contemporary, Vienna (2023); ja, fürwahr, ihr zeigt uns Träume, wie die Brust sie kaum begreift, Galerie Mark Mueller, Zurich (2023); Frozen Gesture, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2019); Unpainting – Contemporary Abstraction, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); Movements Towards Formation, Kustquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2015) and Cinema and Painting, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington (2014).
Works by Millar are held in institutional collections as well as in numerous private collections in Europe, Aotearoa, The United States and Australia.
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Judy Millar, The Wave Cry, The Wind Cry, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 2300 x 25500m
Judy Millar, Waking at Dawn, 2023, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1400 x 950mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2001, acrylic and oil on aluminium, 550 x 760mm
Judy Millar, 5th Kyiv Biennial: Against the Logic of War, 2023, Installation view, Augarten Contemporary, Vienna, Photo: eSeL.at – Joanna Pianka
Judy Millar, Water On Your Forehead, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 1800 x 1400mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2005, acrylic oil on canvas, 1350 x 1050mm
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2004, acrylic and oil on aluminium, 770 x 510mm
Judy Millar, Underwing, 2023, acrylic oil on canvas, 2100 x 800mm
Judy Millar, Blow Away Spell, 2022, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Learning to Eat Fire, 2022, acrylic and oil on canvas 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Pink Trap, 2020, acrylic on vinyl, 2145 x 6100mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnet
Judy Millar, Big Skies Tonight, 2020, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2100 x 1600mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Action Movie, 2021 Installation view, City Gallery Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Cheska Brown
Judy Millar, Action Movie, 2021 Installation view, City Gallery Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Cheska Brown
Judy Millar, Cave, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2100 x 1550mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, Untitled, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 1800 x 1250mm. Photograph: Sam Hartnett
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, The Future and Past Perfect, 2019 Installation view, Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland. Photograph: Sebastian Stadler
Judy Millar, Rock Drop, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Aotearoa. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Space Work 7, 2014 Installation view, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Wellington, Aotearoa. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Be Do Be Do Be Do, 2013 Installation view, IMA, Brisbane, Australia Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, The Rainbow Loop, 2012 Installation view, Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany
Judy Millar, A Better Life, 2010 Installation view, Spielhaus Morrison Galerie, Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Millar Studio
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter
Judy Millar, Giraffe, Bottle, Gun, 2009 Installation view, Pavilion of New Zealand Aotearoa, 53rd Venice Biennale. Photograph: Harald Richter