Wardell Milan’s “Modern Utopia,” on display at Fraenkel Gallery, is an experience akin to combing through an “I Spy” book. As one walks through the gallery’s three-room open floor plan, a scavenger hunt for observed consistencies commences. A brief key of what to look for: presentations of sexuality, explorations of gender and its absence, and studies of the human body in periods of transition.
Yet, the exhibit’s look-a-little-closer nature alludes to implications far beyond the “I Spy” series. Milan creates a space in “Modern Utopia” safe enough to observe the human in all its nuance while simultaneously answering the question: “Where do I fit into all of this?”
Milan embraces human sexuality in “Modern Utopia” by creating inevitable comparisons between subject and background. “Lovers, taking in the air.” situates a couple so intertwined with each other that they become an androgynous portrait against a scene of serene blooming florals.
Parallel to the quiet, aforementioned lovers lie more explicitly raw depictions. In “He darts his tongue out of his tingling lips.,” the subjects’ hands grip each other impatiently in a setting identical to the previous painting. In “Lovers. Outside the world is on fire.,” a couple lies tangled on the floor of a bleeding red room while windows showcase an apocalyptic war zone — backdropping the lovers’ secluded sexual hunger. As distinct points on a passionate spectrum, the pieces broadcast the dexterous nature of modern love.
Milan centers his portraiture of sexuality around the masculine form, creating a space for the feminine to exist outside of her sexuality. In place of the typical artistic hypersexualization of the feminine, Milan prostrates their form in a deity-like admiration. “Float” and “Sitting in her adornments.” are parallel depictions of the feminine form centered in shrines of silver leaf foil and vivid blue paint splashes.
He even clears space for the feminine to exist in androgyny. “The Divine Feminine. Manny V.” is a delicate sketch of a figure only overtly feminine in title and apparel, if that. Her hair is a blunt pixie, her eyebrows dark blue and sharp, and her eyes sunken in and drifting — features more androgynous than not. By crafting a subject that toes the line between masculine and feminine, Milan challenges the strict box that femininity tends to be shoved into.
“The Divine Feminine. Manny V.” is also in part inspired by Milan’s friend undergoing a gender transition. This fascination with the body and its transformative capabilities is potent across the show’s pieces (“Stefi” and Carriejune,” namely). Two bodybuilders exist as the sum of their physiques on blank white canvas — standing as tangible representations of the human form’s alteration. Influenced by cubism, the sketched figures are overlaid with frames of themselves in different positions, imitating movement and resulting in a study of the body reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.”
In between the extensive artistic deliberation on the body in its various states, Milan also inserts self-assurance. Among the pieces highlighting the universality of emotional experience lay striking portraits of tulips. “A single blue tulip.,” “Bouquet of tulips.” and “3 purple tulips.” stand out against the otherwise intense subject matter, but when understood as a convoluted self-portraiture of Milan himself, they gain a function akin to an artistic signature. The tulip is Milan’s vehicle for establishing identity among the subjects he depicts, placing himself within the space he creates.
If one wishes to step into this haven for the curious mind, Milan’s “Modern Utopia” is on display in San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery until May 24.
