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“Painted Bodies + Pholourie” art show

April 28, 7-11 p.m. Calabash Alley Caribbean Restaurant 2122 Candler Road Decatur, GA 30032 www.facebook.com/ events/1399061566824325 that was it: from then on, every day after work, I would go to the gym and rush home after the gym to create.”

When Millar’s boss at the health center asked him how they could get their young clientele engaged with the nonprofit beyond just picking up condoms, Millar studied the CDC guidelines for prevention interventions and created an art therapy program. The initiative was popular enough for the young artists to produce two shows, where their friends and family members were able to learn more of their perspective as young black gay men.

“Some of the stuff that came out of those teenagers – they were so brilliant,” Millar said with awe.

Millar soon returned to his city of birth, where he eventually received a scholarship to participate in a program at the Art Students League of New York, got a temporary job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and immersed himself in the art world.

“We basically talked about art all day, and I met a lot of people and got really inspired,” he said. “I started to go back to collage and get more into Romare Bearden, and that opened up doors to see other people I enjoyed and could be inspired by.”

Traveling through vaunted art galleries like the Guggenheim Museum, even while wearing a name tag from The Met, Millar often sensed that he was not supposed to be there, due both to his physical appearance, and the absence of art that reflected his culture and experience.

“We need to be more present in these spaces, physically, as people of color, and we also need to be on the walls more, not just in their collection where they pretty much collect things from around the world from all cultures,” Millar said. “That’s like the strongest representation you’ll see [of non-European art], but why not have more paintings of brown people on the wall to be seen?”

April 28, 2017