“100 Years of Creative Visions”: Mills College Art Museum celebrates a century of diversity and community

Enveloped in vibrant drips of red and green paint sits a child with bound feet feeding her brother rice, the latter’s gaze piercing and vivid. Standing at 80 inches, Hung Liu’s “White Rice Bowl” is one of the first paintings audiences see when entering “100 Years of Creative Visions.” 

This exhibition, which opened in September and runs through April 26, celebrates the centennial anniversary of the Mills College Art Museum, and with it, a long history of uplifting the diverse artistic communities that make up the museum’s dynamic legacy. Major works from the museum’s permanent collection are on display, emphasizing creative communities and artist friendships.  

Liu’s painting introduces that legacy, a mark of the impact she left on the museum as a Chinese immigrant and illustrious contemporary artist, who made it a priority to inspire and mentor women of color while teaching at Mills, said mentee Sandra Ono. Her work at the museum was honored in the 2024 exhibition “Look Up to the Sky, Hung Liu’s Legacy of Mentoring Women Artists.”

“It was a way in which we could celebrate the community that she mentored in a place that also really mentored her and had a history of propping up artists and voices here in the Bay Area,” said Rachelle Reichart, an artist featured in the exhibit centered on Liu’s contributions. 

Supporting Asian and Asian American artists has been at the museum’s core since its founding by Albert Bender, said museum Director Stephanie Hanor. At a time when Asian cultures and immigrants were met with prejudice in the Bay Area, Bender was pushing back by collecting and showcasing Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan art. 

Bender was also pivotal in bringing Diego Rivera’s art to the U.S. The Mills College Art Museum became the second in the country to acquire a painting by this Mexican revolutionary in 1926, a catalyst for the museum’s dedication to Mexican and Latino artwork, now featured in the exhibit’s Mexican Modernists and Friends section. Rivera’s initial involvement with Mills was thanks to Alma Lavenson, daughter of Mills College benefactor Albert S. Lavenson, who traveled to Mexico to acquire his work.  

Alma Lavenson was also pushing her own artistic boundaries as a member of the Bay Area photography group f/64. Other members whose photos are on display at the centennial exhibit include Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams and Tina Modotti. Susan Ehrens, author of a book detailing Alma Lavenson’s journey to the progressive sharp-focus style that f/64 pioneered, praised the museum for its early support of the modernist photography movement. She noted it once was criticized by photographers who practiced pictorialism, a style of photography that was more widely accepted as a fine art in the early 20th century. 

Trying different approaches

Hanor describes the museum as a laboratory space where artists are able to take risks and see what works for them. Young Suh, an artist whose work was on display in the 2024 exhibition “Reshaping the Narrative: California Perspectives,” said it would have been easier for the museum to use his already completed series on California fires. Instead, he was encouraged to work on an unfinished project about desert landscapes that he describes as being mostly dreams and ideas when first approached about it. 

“Stephanie [Hanor] was very open and she was actually quite interested in trying different things and having different approaches,” Suh said. 

Oakland-based artist Weston Teruya was also featured in “Reshaping the Narrative: California Perspectives.” In his “Means of Exchange” series, Teruya centered on a dry cleaner and tailor, a vinyl shop, and a police violence awareness organization, all with storefronts on 25th Street in Oakland. 

Teruya said working with Mills on the project gave him an opportunity to engage in the social justice dialogues integral to Oakland. The museum, he said, showcases art that is responsive to surrounding communities. 

“You see a lot of neighbor organizing, stories from different communities of color, a range of work from very well-known international artists, to local folks who are really embedded into the community,” Teruya said.  

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