PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Michael C. McMillen: Red Trailer Motel (first floor, north and south galleries)
November 21, 2003 - January 3, 2004
Opening reception, Friday, November 21, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

We enter the gallery through a weathered door. It is dark. We hear a faint night chorus of crickets and the sound of a gentle gust of wind. We find ourselves in a large space, dim except for an illuminated structure. What is it? It is the Red Trailer Motel. --- Michael C. McMillen

L.A. Louver is proud to present Red Trailer Motel, the latest installation by L.A.-based assemblage artist Michael C. McMillen. Built of corrugated metal, tar paper, old signs and an odd assortment of materials, McMillen presents the visitor to his Motel with three locked doors. The visitor cannot enter inside, but may choose the position of voyeur, and peer through a peephole that is lodged in each of the doors. Each view reveals a unique visual experience -- a made-up world created by McMillen -- that transports the viewer into a distinctly different conceptual space.

In counterpoint to the Red Trailer Motel, a work entitled Time Below is installed in the south gallery. Time Below is a miniature aerial view of the motel that confronts and reforms the established relationship of the visitor to the main installation. Point of view, scale and time are all questions that are addressed by this relationship and which, assisted by sound and light elements in the work, induce a complex range of emotional and psychological responses in the viewer.

Red Trailer Motel was first exhibited at The University of Wyoming Art Museum, June 21 through October 4, 2003. Time Below was shown at Cypress College Art Gallery in February this year.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, McMillen earned both an M.A. and M.F.A. from UCLA. McMillen has exhibited widely, and established himself as an early exponent of installation art. One-person exhibitions include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977 (McMillen went on to earn a Young Talent Award from LACMA in 1983); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1978; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, 1980; and the Oakland Museum, 1991-92. He has also been included in many group exhibitions at museums that include Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Diego Art Museum and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

McMillen has earned a number of grants for his installation projects, receiving support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Getty Center for the Arts among others. In 1999 he received a Flintridge Foundation award. McMillen's work is included in public collections that include the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; The Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Scotland; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- where his beloved installation entitled "Central Meridian" (often referred to as "The Garage") is on view.

Concurrent to his exhibition at L.A. Louver, McMillen's work may also be seen in other L.A. area locations. These include the installation Pump House (The Manifesto of the Crooked Branch) at The Palm Springs Desert Museum through January 4 2004; the permanent installation Geologica 42, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Pasadena Gold Line Station, Pasadena, and the subterranean installation Motel (Under the World) located in the entryway of The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, which is on view indefinitely.

On view in LA Louver's second floor gallery is Sean Scully: Photographs November 21, 2003 - January 3, 2004. Joel Shapiro sculpture continues in the skyroom.

L.A. Louver is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Validated parking available.
For further information and visuals please contact Elizabeth East, L..A. Louver Gallery, 45 North Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291; telephone 310-822-4955; fax 310-821-7529; e-mail elizabeth@lalouver.com; www.lalouver.com.