It's grad show season again. Mills College had their opening last Saturday. It snuck up on me, I was attending an art event and I quickly realized half of those attending were taking off to go to the idyllic Mills campus so I hitched a ride, and followed those same people to a BBQ where the Mills program was a hot topic of conversation. 

The show was good but not great. It is a small program with a beautiful exhibition space, so each student had quite a bit of square footage to work with. My feeling was that most students showed too many bodies of work. The intention may have been to show the breadth of their practice, but it made many of the presentations less strong, like Kelsey Thornton's, who showed a quite interesting large sculptural installation which was made less impressive by the drawings thumbtacked to the wall behind. There were plenty of the usual Mills tropes, process-based ceramics, and work which looked super similar to that of current or former professors (Dave Young Kim's too familiar painting stands out in this regard) The highlights were William Koone's installation and David Mohr's paintings, but there was promise throughout, such as in Kate Rhoades' not quite resolved videos.

These shows are a great chance to see new art and artists, but they are also a great chance to reflect upon these arts programs. At the aforementioned BBQ we talked about where Mills came from, where it was going, the strengths of its program and what was missing. Many present were deeply personally invested and had strong opinions about this or that former or future professor, and how changes in the program were reflected in each year's show. We care about these programs, big and small because they reflect the art world we are a part of.