Iowa Artists 2025

“Iowa Artists 2025: Ben Millett” is a timely and groundbreaking entry into our decades-long series presenting the best of Iowa-made art, and the first solo show by a quilt maker in the museum’s history.

“Iowa Artists 2025” features the work of quilt maker Ben Millett. Based in Des Moines, Millett’s approach to textiles is literally multi-layered, employing traditional quilting techniques to create works that combine original patterns, a bright palette, and visual nods to queer iconography and activism. This exhibition will feature various types of Millett’s textile art, including large quilts, garments, multi-paneled fabric collages, and an artist’s book made from fabric. This will be the first solo exhibition of quilted art in the history of the Des Moines Art Center.  

Millett’s inspirations range from his own biography to formal color theory to pop culture. Works in this exhibition include two tiny, quilted meditations on Ellsworth Kelly’s 1963 painting “Yellow Blue” (in the Art Center’s permanent collections) and two jackets inspired by the 2019 film “Midsommar.” What might first appear to be a traditional triangle-based pattern turns out to be a key to the hanky code, a covert method of communicating by color, used in the queer community when declaring oneself openly was not possible. Another garment’s swirling stitches reveal the word ‘Queer.’ The exhibition’s centerpiece will be a wall-sized installation Millett has created from nearly two dozen mini-quilts. Titled “If I Had Said Yes,” each segment is derived from a restricted set of colors and variations on a set of shapes that the artist uses to explore questions about the paths we choose in life and the alternate roads not taken.

In vivid colors, Millet’s work introduces several themes in this presentation. These textiles are a playful blurring of the lines between art and utilitarian objects, connecting to both the bright abstract paintings and the contemporary textiles found in the Art Center’s Richard Meier building. His works inspire a direct dialogue around the importance and history of queer pride, echoing multiple works in our galleries that tell stories of identity, visibility, and justice. “Iowa Artists 2025: Ben Millett” is a timely and groundbreaking entry into our decades-long series presenting the best of Iowa-made art.    

Ben Millett (American, born 1979)
Progress Pride Stars, 2023
Cotton fabric, batting, and thread; quilted by machine
Courtesy of the artist

Ben Millett (American, born 1979)
It’s Electric!, 2024
Cotton fabric and thread, wool batting; quilted by machine
Courtesy of the artist