EMERGING ARTIST POP-UP | DEAN MILLS
A one night only event!
EXHIBITION RECEPTION
Saturday May 10, 2025
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm.
Hooks-Epstein Galleries proudly introduces "Inward / Outward", the first solo pop-up exhibition of emerging visual artist Dean Mills. The great-grandchild of gallery founder Geri Hooks, this personal milestone merges artistic growth with family legacy, offering a meaningful setting for work rooted in identity, memory, and reflection.
A senior at Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, Mills explores the contrast between inner emotional life and outward societal presentation. Through layered acrylic and delicate washes of watercolor, Mills’ paintings investigate themes of gender, vulnerability, and self-perception. Layered, abstract works evoke moments of introspection and emotional residue, while other pieces suggest the conscious performance of identity under external expectation. Together, the exhibition forms a visual conversation between what is felt and what is shown—an ongoing negotiation of the self.
Dean Mills has received a Scholastic Art & Writing Silver Key and has exhibited at the Holocaust Museum Houston, traveling HISD exhibitions, and Hardy & Nance Studios. Mills will attend the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) this fall to continue developing an artistic practice.
