OAKLAND, Calif. — Last October, artist Mildred Howard, widely recognized for large-scale sculptures, mixed media, and public art, was celebrated by San Francisco’s 500 Capp Street and the San José Museum of Art. Near the end of the month, the Southeast Community Center debuted in San Francisco’s Bayview District, with Howard’s commissioned metal sculpture “Promissory Notes” installed outside. Just before that, in September, her solo exhibition, The Time and Space of Now, opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San José, featuring multimedia installations, her first film, and 30 works on paper; it remains on view through February 26.
Howard, who was born in San Francisco, raised in Berkeley, and now lives in Oakland, has more than earned the praise coming her way, artist Lava Thomas said. “She was one of the first people creating public artwork in the Bay Area, and she’s literally changed the landscape,” Thomas told Hyperallergic. “She was a huge mentor for me when I was designing the Maya Angelou monument — I had never designed a monument before. And her work in installation art really broke ground for a lot of folks who came after her.”
Thomas first encountered Howard’s work while living in Los Angeles. After moving to Berkeley, she learned that Howard was teaching at Stanford and went to the campus to meet her. After introducing herself and telling Howard how much she admired her work, Thomas invited her to lunch, and the two have remained friends ever since.
For her ICA exhibition, Howard collaborated with composer Chris Brown to create music for each gallery space and for a film she made after finding eight-millimeter footage in her mother’s purse that Howard had shot in Texas when she was 14. In the galleries, a large black peahen flies above a heap of oyster shells; a clock is set to 6:19, for June 19th — Juneteenth — marking the end of slavery in the United States; and a large funnel suspended from the ceiling pours sand onto the floor. In another gallery, 30 of Howard’s prints are displayed on the walls.
Zoë Latzer, the ICA’s associate curator, said the museum aims to highlight local artists who have made a major impact — Howard among them. “The Bay Area has been historically very ignored,” she related. “Our role is really thinking about who are these incredible Bay Area artists, both well known, like Mildred, as well as emerging and under-recognized.” Howard earned an MFA from the Fiberworks Center for the Textile Arts at John F. Kennedy University, and her practice spans glass, metals, textiles, collage, photography, and prints. A former dancer, she also collaborates with musicians such as Brown and poets including Janice Mirikitani and Quincy Troupe.
Howard said she enjoys experimenting across forms. “I get bored easily, and I like exploring other avenues of learning,” she explained in her Oakland studio. “In art school they emphasize you have to work on this one body of work, so that you really begin to understand the material. And that’s true, but at the same time, you can work on multiple areas, and one thing informs the other.” Artist Kija Lucas, who met Howard while taking a class with her at the San Francisco Art Institute that traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, said Howard moves fluidly between styles and mediums. “She’s an artist to her bones, and she works in whatever way makes sense,” Lucas noted. “Her work is really incredible, and she’s been in the Bay Area making art for so long.”
Although Howard is now best known for public art, she said it took about 15 years before receiving her first commission, “Gospel and The Storefront Church” in Mill Valley in 1984. Her next public installation was “Salty Peanuts” at San Francisco Airport in 2000. “It took that many years,” she said. “I kept seeing all these men, and I’m thinking they’re no better than I am.” Howard said she kept going because she wanted to expand her practice and reach a wider community.
“I’m constantly trying to challenge what I know and what I don’t know,” she mused. “It’s that challenge that interests me.” Troupe, who has read his poetry at several of Howard’s openings and wrote a poem etched into the glass panels of “Three Shades of Blue” (2003) in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, said Howard reminds him of Miles Davis. “Mildred is direct, and Miles was direct. I’ve always liked that in people — she is no-nonsense about things,” he laughed. “I think Mildred’s work is powerful and unique. She has her own signature like Miles. If you hear Miles Davis on a record, you know it’s him by the voice. If you see a Mildred Howard piece, you know it’s hers by the voice.”
Beyond her artworks around the Bay Area, Howard has also worked closely with her community. She developed a curriculum combining art and science for San Francisco’s Exploratorium, and at chef Alice Waters’s invitation she became executive director of the Edible School Yard at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Middle School. Artist Leila Weefur, who grew up in Oakland seeing Howard’s work, met her when Howard was a visiting artist at Mills College during Weefur’s graduate studies. “She has a lot of perspective and holds a lot of history about this place,” stated Weefer. “I want to uplift her story and make her known to the younger generation.”
James Leventhal, director of the ICA San José, said Howard has helped generations of Bay Area artists feel their work matters. “I think she’s just been such an important mentor and teacher for so many people for so many decades,” he expressed. “She has just been a living embodiment in a lot of ways that it’s possible [to succeed]. I think she gives that feeling to people.” Kija Lucas also praised Howard’s candor. “She doesn’t beat around the bush …. She’s very giving, and she tells you what’s up. She’ll let you know the real deal — she’s not going to pretend. She’s the opposite of a gatekeeper for generations of students.”
500 Capp Street’s director, Cait Molloy, said Howard has been deeply important in using art to connect with people ranging from children to incarcerated communities. In Molloy’s experience, Howard is eager to pass along what she knows. For Howard, who is currently working toward enough pieces for three shows in eight months, that spirit of generosity is central to her practice. “It’s hard,” she said. “The journey is nothing without taking someone along with you.”
