College of Arts and Architecture
School of Visual Arts
SCULPTURE
CRISTIN MILLETT
Assistant Professor of Art
Growing up in a medical environment, I was surrounded by discussions, most often at the dinner table, that focused on the human body: its diseases, its symptoms, its diagnosis, and its treatment. In my family of scientists those conversations continue to this day, but I have come to recognize the profound effect that exposure at an early age has had on my art.
I consider myself fortunate in discovering my passion for art at an early age and began my professional studies while attending North Carolina School of the Arts. I continued my education at Kent State University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990, and recognized my true direction as a sculptor in my pursuit of graduate studies at Arizona State University, where I received my Master of Fine Arts degree in 1996. Although my interest in the body and body politics originated in my childhood, it was during graduate school that I incorporated this fascination into my art. I have a heightened awareness of and interest in the spatial associations between my own body and the cultural environment in which it is located. As such, I consciously work to create architectural installations that explore the metaphorical relationships between the interior and exterior spaces of architecture and those of the body.
Currently, as an Assistant Professor of Art at Penn State, I teach sculpture courses at all levels, including foundry and installation art. Prior to my appointment at Penn State, I taught four years at the University of Maine as an Assistant Professor of Art and built the sculpture and foundry program. I have also taught courses in foundations and sculpture at Arizona State University, Mesa Community College, and Phoenix College.
My work has been exhibited in numerous one and two-person exhibitions, including the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, ATHICA (Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA), the Esther Klein Gallery in Philadelphia, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, Maine, the Icehouse in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Hartnett Gallery at the University of Rochester. My work has been included in invitational and juried exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, at venues such as Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and the Ground’s for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.
In addition, my work has been reviewed in numerous publications including Sculpture magazine, Art Papers, and the Chicago Tribune. I have received grants for my research and teaching, including a Faculty Research Grant and a Bird and Bird Grant from the University of Maine. In 2002, I was awarded an Institute for the Arts & Humanistic Studies Grant from Penn State to continue research on medical history and art in Italy and the US. I have received a Penn State College of Arts & Architecture Research Grant every year beginning in 2001-02 to support my continued research on the interface between medicine and art in the history of Europe and the United States. In 2001, a Djerassi Residency in Woodside, California, funded my examination of historical and contemporary societal perceptions of human anatomy. In 2004, I received a three-month residency at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York. While in residence there, I created Teatro Anatomico, an installation based on my research on anatomy theaters. This piece examines the gendered power relationships created among the inhabitants of the space depending on their roles and locations within the installation.
My conceptual investigations of medicine and its history are integral to my process and stem from my childhood. As a sculptor I am rooted in the tradition of object making, but I strongly believe my objects have less impact outside of the context of the installation they were created for. I enjoy the challenges posed by working in such extreme scales and am convinced this variety stimulates both my studio practice and my creative drive. My future work will continue this contrast in scale, coupled with an increasing effort to bring awareness to my viewers of their physicality, their sexuality, and all its implications.
GALLERY OF ARTWORK
