Cristin Millett

Cristin Millett

  • Professor of Art

Exploding traditional disciplinary boundaries, Cristin Millett’s investigations of medicine and its history are integral to her process. Her research stems from her childhood growing up in a medical household where discussions, most often at the dinner table, focused on the human body: its diseases, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments. In her family of scientists, those conversations continue to this day, and the profound effect that exposure has on her art continues. Although her interest in the body and body politics originated in her childhood, she began to study gynecology as a gender-specific metaphor during graduate school. She has examined collections of instruments, anatomical models, historical texts, and anatomy theaters throughout Europe and the United States. Whereas most scholars respond to their research through writing, Millett, as a visual artist, expresses the results of her critical analysis in works of art. She reinvents established methods of sculpture by incorporating new advances in digital technology, including CNC machining, 3D printing, and robotics, with the time-honored practices of stone carving and bronze casting. Her objects and installations prompt a contemporary cultural critique of societal issues surrounding reproduction and gender identity. Her work has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo and group shows, including at the Villa Strozzi in Florence, the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Millett began her professional studies in art at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  She received her BFA at Kent State University and her MFA from Arizona State University. Prior to her appointment at Penn State, she taught at the University of Maine for four years where she built the sculpture and foundry program. Since 2001, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in sculpture, foundry and installation at Penn State. Learn more about the artist at www.cristin-millett.com.