Ben Millett is an Iowa-based artist who stretches the definition of what a quilted object can be. His art retains connections to traditional quilt patterns and sewing techniques, but also is strongly influenced by painting, color theory, and LGBTQ activism. Elements of his own biography also frequently appear in his color and pattern choices. Millett primarily creates his own patterns for his quilts, using digital drawings that can be printed for cutting fabric shapes or loaded into long-arm machines that sew in the threads that bind the layers of fabric.
 

Most quilt construction, both historic and contemporary, is based on repeating a defined set of geometric shapes with either pre-chosen patterned fabric or recycled clothes and linens. Millett also finds inspiration in the formal exploration of color relationships and shape found in geometric abstract painting of the 1960s. Ellsworth Kelly is a strong influence on Millett’s aesthetic, resulting in the four Ode to Ellsworth mini quilts. In re-imagining Ellsworth Kelly’s mid-20th century painting style in this manner, Millett transforms the starkly delineated planes of color that make up Kelly’s art, known as “Hard Edge,” into something small and soft. The strong solid colors are true to Kelly’s proto-Minimalist legacy, but here they are dappled with the texture of woven fabric and quilted thread. Experimenting with changing surfaces and minor shifts in color was a motivator for the artist to create these objects. Odes 1 and -1 remake Kelly’s Yellow Blue (1963) from the Art Center’s collection, seen both as it exists and with the colors reversed. The handheld and small nature of these mini quilts means they can be paired in various ways, lining them upside by side or flipping one or the other, so the rounded shapes are at connected or disconnected angles. Odes 2 and -2 are similarly flexible in terms of their installation. Their composition was inspired by a technique employed by Kelly, in which he photographed shadows and turned them into simplified, colored shapes. Millet’s small abstractions in shades of green (his signature color) were inspired by a photo he himself took of a convention center side entrance, which he transformed into a Kelly-like set of shapes. Odes 2 and -2 represent a conversation between two gay, abstract artists across time, using the language of color.