An artist talk and reception celebrating the opening of Millie Wilson: The Museum of Lesbian Dreams.
3:00 PM | Artist Talk
A conversation between exhibition curator David Evans Frantz and artist Millie Wilson, tracing the ideas, history, and creative process behind this landmark body of work. The conversation will be followed immediately by the exhibition’s opening reception.
4:00 PM | Opening Reception
The opening reception of the retrospective exhibition Millie Wilson: The Museum of Lesbian Dreams, marking Wilson’s homecoming to Los Angeles where she lived and worked as an artist and educator for many decades.
Be among the first to see the exhibition and enjoy a rare opportunity to see the artist and exhibition curator in conversation. The artist conversation will be held in The Luckman immediately preceding the opening reception.
Originally organized by Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where it was on view from August 29, 2024, through March 1, 2025, the exhibition brings together major loans from the artist, private collections, museums, and galleries, including 13 works from The Luckman’s Permanent Collection.
The exhibition builds on the first retrospective and publication devoted to three decades of Wilson’s work. An influential yet underrecognized artist and pedagogue who taught generations of artists at the California Institute of the Arts, Wilson has critically examined feminism, queerness, and the historical erasure of these perspectives within art institutions.
The iteration presented at The Luckman extends the retrospective of Wilson’s expansive practice, influential pedagogy, and enduring legacy to the west coast for the first time. It is made possible by a generous grant from Tieger Foundation.
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Wilson joined 1980s postmodernism with the personally and politically charged conceptualism of the 1990s. Wilson mounted her works that appropriated museum practices and authority under an expansive project titled “The Museum of Lesbian Dreams,” an assertion of queer world-making as well as a mockery of the Freudian obsession with the unconscious and midcentury sexology research.
This thematic exhibition emphasizes Wilson’s consistent appropriation of museum display practices and institutional authority, her art historical references to dada and surrealism, her sharp attention to gendered portrayals of sexual deviance in early twentieth-century psychoanalysis and sexology, and her longstanding interest in bodies as unruly and contested sites. A select number of ephemera and teaching materials demonstrate how Wilson’s work enfolds LGBTQ cultures, art histories, and activism in the United States.
Curated by David Evans Frantz
Organized for Krannert Art Museum by Amy L. Powell
Organized for The Luckman by Aaron Gomez
Image: Detail from Leotard, Cheater, Painter. 1989. Stretched fabric, gelatin silver print, acrylic on canvas, vinyl type, and panel mounted on Dibond. Photo: Taryn Mills Photography. Courtesy of the artist.
Supported by
David Evans Frantz
David Evans Frantz has been preparing this exhibition since 2019, working closely with Millie Wilson. His curatorial work has focused on bringing attention to overlooked queer artists, seen in the exhibitions Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art and Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. (both co-curated with C. Ondine Chavoya). Axis Mundo propelled new recognition for artists, including Roberto Gil de Montes, Mundo Meza, and Joey Terrill, among others. With Christina Linden and Chris E. Vargas, Frantz is co-editor of the book Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects, a publication of the Museum of Trans History & Art (MOTHA).
Amy L. Powell
Amy L. Powell is a curator and writer based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she serves as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Krannert Art Museum and Curator of Campus Arts Research in the Office for Arts Integration. Her research engages contemporary art with a commitment to university art museums as sites for knowledge production and experimentation. Her research has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Aaron Gomez
Aaron Gomez is a Los Angeles-based curator. He carries a BFA from the University of New Mexico. Since 2021, he has been Gallery Manager at The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA. He previously served as curator at Haphazard Gallery. Recent curatorial highlights at The Luckman include solo presentations of artists Brian Zamora and Raymundo T. Reynoso.
Exhibition Hours
October 24, 2026 – April 10, 2027:
Wednesday – Saturday
12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
During Luckman Theatre presentations:
1 hour prior to start time + during intermission.
By appointment:
To request, please email us here.
Admission to The Luckman Gallery is free.
Parking
Guest parking permits can be purchased at physical pay stations located in designated pay lots or through PayByPhone. All permits are virtual, and your vehicle’s license plate number is required at the time of purchase.
PayByPhone
– Current rate for a one-hour parking permit: $4.30
– Visa and MasterCard only.
– The rate is inclusive of all taxes and fees.
One-Hour Parking
One-hour parking permit is available at:
- Lot 4A — PayByPhone location code: 1576
- University Student Union lot — PayByPhone location code: 1577
Please note: Only one-hour daily permits are available and valid in these locations.
Additional Parking
Parking is also available directly in front of The Luckman on the top level of Structure C. During campus events and performances, as well as on weekends, event parking rates apply in this structure.
Directions to The Luckman Gallery
From Lot 4A — Google Maps
From University Student Union — Google Maps
From Structure C — Google Maps
From the Cal State LA Transit Center — Google Maps