Wes Mills

Born in Tucson, Arizona, in 1960, Wes Mills has taken his time finding his own feeling of home as he moves from town to town in the great American West. The artist first moved to Taos, New Mexico, in 1991, where he integrated himself quickly as an artist and gallery owner. However, he left shortly after moving on to California and again to Montana.

While the town of Taos may have noticed the absence of such an innovative and inspirational artist, who also worked hard to support the arts community, Mills’ career continued to flourish. His artwork is featured in galleries, publications, and museums across the United States and Europe. His drawings and prints have found homes in collections such as the Harwood Museum of Art, Taos; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Missoula Art Museum, Montana; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

“I think of Wes Mills as a Western American nomad. He moves every few years…the tools of his trade and a year’s stack of finished drawings fit easily into a back pack..perpetually poised to negotiate new opportunities, he is a master of hanging out his shingle in each new location and creating a circle of activity. Within months of his 1991 arrival in Taos, New Mexico, he opened the Barber Shop Gallery. It was the first of two small one-room gallery spaces where he hung the work of other artists with great care and stunning proportion…”

– MaLin Wilson, Santa Fe 1998

Mills’ prints and drawings are included in such collections as Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA), New Mexico Museum of Fine Art (Santa Fe, NM), Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University (Waltham, MA), Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Missoula Art Museum (Missoula, MT), Harwood Museum of Art (Taos, NM), and the Museum of Fine Art (Boston, MA) among others.

Among the publications that have featured Mills’ work are art ltd., New American Paintings, The Oregonian, Portland Mercury, Art in America, THE Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, Boston Globe, The New York Observer, The Missoulian, Modern Painters Magazine, The New Republic Magazine, The New York Times, Artnet, The Chicago Tribune, BOMB Magazine, Flash Art, Artforum, and The New Art Examiner.