Mills’ found-wood constructions offer poignant commentaries on the process of urban renewal. His materials—splintered lengths off finishing molding caked with layers of “ghetto -green” enamel paint, brittle laths, dusty battered planks, and bits of signboard salvaged from the gutted interiors of dilapidated buildings—are the artifacts of changing social, economic, and political histories.
Distilled from the architectural features of actual buildings, Mills’ facades, with their sometimes sagging cornices with the pentimenti of deteriorated decorative details, are intimate, brooding portraits of melancholy and despair.
—Garrett Holg, "Reviews: Dan Mills”, New Art Examiner, Summer, 1989
