Opening Reception: June 2nd | 4pm-7pm

Anglim Gilbert Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Mildred Howard.

Drawing inspiration from an 18th-century set of Casanova’s journals, Mildred Howard’s new body of work appropriates and subverts history, comments on perpetual global movement and universal connections, and serves as a modern critique of masculinity. A suite of 27 prints created at renowned Shark’s Ink in Lyons, Colorado combine collage, found antique engravings, digital images, maps, various papers, lithography, and chine collé. Two cotton Jacquard tapestries (published by Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California) round out the exhibition.

Howard, who grew up in a family of antique dealers, has long been fascinated by the mysteries inherent in rare books and the historical narratives and figures within them. She reworked and transformed the images in Casanova’s journals through the addition of color and subtle alterations to subject matter. Rare antique books from Venice, London, and Paris became further inspiration, bolstering the content of these new narratives with lithographs, maps, and anatomical and botanical drawings.

As the collaged imagery came together, Howard was reminded of the indefinable nature of the Other. As Howard states, “[The Other] can’t be pinned down: it changes like language changes, all the time, almost imperceptibly, whether one moves from block to block or across an ocean.” Further, Howard’s research and process allowed her to realize that the seemingly fictitious, archetypal character of Casanova was, in fact, an historical figure, and, inadvertently, a caricature for the current social climate.

Known for her sculptural installations and and mixed-media assemblage work, Howard received her MFA from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, CA. In 2015 she received the Lee Krasner Award, in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement. She has also been the recipient of the Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists (2017), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2004/05), a fellowship from the California Arts Council (2003), the Adeline Kent Award from San Francisco Art Institute (1991), and, most recently, The Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts and the Douglas G. MacAgy Distinguished Achievement Award at San Francisco Art Institute. Large-scale installations have been mounted at Creative Time in New York, InSITE in San Diego, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the New Museum in New York. Public commissions and installations were executed for the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, the City of Oakland, and the San Francisco Arts Commission and International Airport. Mildred Howard’s works are represented in the collections of SFMOMA, the de Young Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Museum of Glass and Contemporary Art, Tacoma, the Oakland Museum, and the San Jose Museum of Art. Anglim Gilbert Gallery has shown Howard’s work since 1990.