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 retrospective The Land: Not Without a Politic at Marta Herford Museum, Germany, which brought together works from different phases of his practice and was accompanied by a catalogue. Two solo exhibition are currently on view at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina and the Henry Art Gallery Seattle. McMillian participated in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and has exhibited, among others, at 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 works are held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Marta Herford; the Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; the Haubrok Collection, Berlin; and the Studio Museum in Harlem.