Millie Gleeson

Statement

Creating is my constant, it’s how I navigate through life, making my work autobiographical and cyclical in its nature. It’s a sensual and investigative process, led by my experiences and intuition. Fabricating other worldly scenarios, I integrate body art, performance, location and costume. Painting this journey exposes my raw and intimate response; the physical act becoming a performance in itself. People are my main source of my inspiration. I’m fascinated by themes of identity, archetypes and other worlds; my work existing somewhere between what I live and imagine. I consciously seek new situations; creating juxtapositions in, environment, sound, landscape and familiarity, making new found clarity in the unknown. My work explores the realms of the feminine, delving in to the psyche in all its varied and contrasting manifestations. I go through both a transformative and reflective process, in the pursuit to uncover the relationship between self, other and the space between.

GlogauAIR Project

My project is centered in perception, both in ways of seeing and in ways of being. I want to explore the present moment, the encounter ‘the self, the other and the space between.’ Responding to my surroundings I will set myself tasks involving instinctive play; exploring my pace, visual points of view, the sounds I hear, the people I meet. Using blindfolds, mirrors, movement, sound, breath work and lenses, I want to discover how the senses inform one another, the effect they have on my practice and what distortions appear. Using the studio as a stage to perform my journey, I will paint from life, memory and imagination; documenting my changes and those around me, collecting faces and spaces in flux. Residencies have been key in accelerating my development; engaging with people and places around the globe, challenges my perceptions and the way I work. From my experience, Berlin is full of diversity, history and character, being the perfect place to implement ‘perceptions’.

CV Summary

Education

• BA(Hons) in Fashion from UWE

Solo shows

• ‘On Reflection,’ Guggleton, UK (2020)
• ‘All we’ll know,’ Hamilton house, UK (2019)
• ‘Time will tell,” Berlins’ Plateau gallery & Tapir gallery (2016.)

Awards

• RWA 167 annual open (2019)
• Swindon annual open (2019)
• Guggleton, go figure (2018)

Residencies

• Takt, Berlin (2015)
• Arquetopia, Mexico (2018)
• Arquetopia, Peru (2020)
• TUO, Finland (2022)

Gallery