Wes Mills: Art Ltd. Magazine

In keeping with gallery owner Jane Beebe's mission to showcase what she terms "quiet art," PDX Contemporary's March show is devoted to Wes Mills' elegant works on paper, which Beebe calls "breaths of drawings." These mixed-media painted, collaged, and graphite works are grounded in Mills' travels throughout Asia and ongoing study of Tantric thought. It was in Asia that the artist acquired the antique paper and bindings that comprise this body of work. On the paper, delicate gestural and geometric marks coalesce around a central vertical axis. Mills thinks of the white space between the marks as analogous to the distance between heart and mind. Many years ago, when he lived in Taos, New Mexico, Mills owned a small art space called Barber Shop Gallery, where he showed work by regionally and nationally known artists. One day a fellow Taos resident and artist walked into the space and struck up a conversation with him. She needed no introduction; it was Agnes Martin. The two became friends, had a weekly lunch date, and went on drives together. Sometimes Mills watched her paint, an experience that seems to have influenced his already minimalist-leaning style even further in that direction. Many works in the PDX exhibition have extreme proportions, including an untitled piece 12 inches across and nearly 94 inches long. Wes Mills' new show, titled "Hamilton Drawings," can be seen at PDX Contemporary Art, from March 4--April 12.

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