Rodney McMillian

Born 1969 in Columbia, South Carolina

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA 

Rodney McMillian explores the complex connections between history and contemporary culture, particularly as they appear in American politics and modernist art traditions. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and writing, his multidisciplinary practice examines themes of race, labor, and social inequality while negotiating the relationship between the political body and the politics of the body. McMillian often incorporates found materials such as blankets, tarps, and architectural fragments, using them to highlight overlooked materials and marginalized histories. Through these transformations, his work challenges dominant narratives and invites reflection on the social structures that shape everyday life, as well as ideas of care, survival, and political resistance.

McMillian’s work has been featured in major international exhibitions, most recently in the comprehensive survey The Land: Not Without a Politic at Marta Herford Museum, Germany, which presented works spanning his career and was accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. In spring 2026, he will have a solo exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina. McMillian was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and has exhibited at institutions including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MoMA PS1, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art,Boston; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Aspen Art Museum; and ICA Philadelphia. 

His work is held in prominent public collections such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Haubrok Collection, Berlin, and the Studio Museum in Harlem.