“When I was 18 I read The People’s History of the United States, and for the first time I really learned about Columbus. It was disorienting. My world was at once blown wide open and significantly more real. Something similar happened when I first learned about the Councils of Nicea, or who John Brown was, or where Southern California gets its water, who Halliburton’s subsidiaries are, how the Avenue Cribs became the original Crip set, or that Martin Luther King Jr. wore fake glasses because he thought they made him look more distinguished. This type of discovery, how it serves as a catalyst for a reconsideration of one’s world, is the root of my practice.”

Brian Gillis’s Artist Statement