Gigi Mills

Sad Cat Beach/Greece II

2024

Santa Fe artist GiGi Mills abstracts space and forms to merely reference the physical world. Her beaches, seasides and interiors are placed in an impossible mixture of points of view, resulting in truly imaginary spaces. An attention to flat geometric shapes, a rarity of detail, and a tendency to define her figures as silhouettes lends anonymity to her subjects. Mills deconstructs the everyday, then surprise by uniting layers of rich oils to capture ethereal images that are both intensely personal and timeless. The profound effects of nature seem to pray on the artist’s mind. Her images evoke thoughts of endurance and resurgence while also asserting the equally meaningful significance of the ordinary. The reduction of forms to a simplified elegance is essential to her paintings. A successful piece should have the psychological and aesthetic weight to hold the viewer, to entice them to keep coming back to it. Whether she is working on a figure, a landscape, an abstract piece or still life it should attract the viewer with an interest that lies beyond its initial aesthetic impact. Presented in Mills’ painting is a balancing act of grace, awkwardness and elegance. It seems that within this work the extraordinary everyday is enlisted to play its role to the fullest.