Artist Statement:

I am the son of a Michigan autoworker, the grandson of a farmer, and the descendent of one of the women executed during the Salem Witch Trials. I create activist experimental artwork on economic, environmental and justice themes. I work in printmaking, sculpture, and conceptual art. I have distributed my artwork through mass media and through guerrilla installation and performance. My work is characterized by unusual methods, unusual materials, social activism, and dark humor.

I attended Michigan State University where I studied fine art and creative writing in their Honors College, paying my way through school by dissecting and embalming cadavers in the MSU human anatomy lab. I received a BFA in Studio Art in 1998. Since then, my artwork has been featured by WIRED, CNN, USA TODAY, Ellen Degeneres, the Chew, and Monday Night Football, and by congressmen on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I work just outside of Detroit in Royal Oak, Michigan. My artwork has been shown in galleries and museums including the University of Illinois’ Krannert Art Museum, San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, Colorado and the Academy of Fine Arts in Sint- Niklaas, Belgium. More locally, my work has been exhibited at Michigan State University’s Kresge Art Museum, B414 Gallery in Lansing, Headspace Gallery in Dearborn, Tangent Gallery in Detroit, and Start Gallery in Detroit.

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION?
Michigan State University, BFA in Studio Art, 1998?
Minor in English (creative writing).?
Attended school on National Merit Scholarship.?
Member of MSU’s Honors College.?
Graduated with Honors. ?
Won Sculpture/Installation/Performance award, MSU Undergraduate Art Exhibition, 1996 and 1997?
Co-winner, Best of Show, second place, MSU Undergraduate Art Exhibition, 1995

SELECTED EXHIBITONS
2017 "ArtPrize," Grand Rapids, MI
2017 "Michigan Fine Arts Competition," Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI
2017 "Canvas Pontiac," Pontiac, MI
2017 “19th Annual Works on Paper Exhibition,” Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Long Beach Township, NJ
2017 “Trump Won't Stop Us,” Thumbprint Gallery, San Diego, CA
2017 “30th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition,” Shearman Fine Arts Center Annex, Grand Gallery, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA
2017 “Urban Collage: Art of Resistance, Art of Resilience,” Feral Factory/The Crash, Denver, CO
2017 “Woven Heritage,” A4 Gallery, Al Serkal Arts District, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2017 “Wheaton Biennial: Printmaking Reimagined,“ Beard and Weil Galleries, Wheaton College, Norton, MA
2017 “Greetings From the Anthropocene,” Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2017 “Art Now: Printmaking,” 117 Gallery, Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI
2017 “Order & Chaos,” Fred Parker Giles Gallery, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY
2017 “Black Words: I Have A Dream," outdoor installation, Dearborn Heights, MI
2016 “Three Rings and Two Parties: the Election Circus,” Wiseman Gallery, Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, OR
2016 “Chasing Ghosts,” Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR
2016 “Damned IX,” Tangent Gallery, Detroit, MI
2016 “Little Free Libraries,” Suburban Collection Showplace, Novi, MI
2016 “Visual Task Force Auction,” National Association of Black Journalists Convention, Washington, DC
2016 “Endangered,” The Studio Door, San Diego, CA
2016 “Art Explored,” outdoor installation, Royal Oak, MI
2015 “Fire Sale II,” Tangent Gallery, Detroit, MI
2015 “Damned VIII,” Tangent Gallery, Detroit, MI
2015 “Living in the City,” Start Gallery, Detroit, MI
2014 “Mercy for the Misunderstood,” Start Gallery, Detroit MI
2013 “Pride, Prejudice and Frankenstein,” guerrilla installation, Metro Detroit, MI
2012 “The Monkey Day Show,” Ice Cream Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
2010 “Covered,” Headspace Gallery, Dearborn, MI
2009 “Out of Sequence,” Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH
2009 “Monsters of Webcomics,” Cartoon Art Museum, San Fransisco, CA
2009 “Out of Sequence,” The Laboratory of Art and Ideas (The Lab)/Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO
2008 “Monkey Day,” Basement 414 Gallery, Lansing, MI
2008 “Out of Sequence,” Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
2002 “Independent Arts Festival,” OJC Kompas vzw, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

Source:
"Eric Millikin," Selected Exhibitions: Art Prize, Grand Rapids MI," Web, 2017