NII T. MILLS

‘Fine Art is a calling’
That is the only explanation I can give to my encounter with this endeavour which took hold of me since my childhood and wrestled with me through my youth all the way up to adulthood; a compulsion which grips me even today.
I was called into fine art quite early in spite of myself. Like many other fine artists, I had other plans and I struggled to resist this calling until I became fully convinced of my powerlessness against it. My earliest ambition was to become an Advertiser; hence I was actually recruited into an Advertising firm to begin my career. Then I changed my mind and had a brief encounter with Accounting, courtesy my father.
My desire changed again to Architecture, then to Planning. Then I decided to put everything aside and become an Academic. That also changed and I went into business, transporting goods and people around Accra and beyond. Those were very good money-making days when transportation was a major issue in Ghana. But that same inner dissatisfaction and struggle, moved me on into Public service where I worked with the national broadcaster, Ghana Television for an entire decade.
Through all these, there was an unseen but undentingly powerful force that kept pulling me and insisting on being focused on. I never stopped painting and doing my art in all those years of indecision. And I realized today that, it was the inherent and natural desire to paint and the unwillingness of that calling to desert me that kept me wavering and unable to focus on any those other occupations.

My first exhibition which was themed ‘TROPICAL SPECTRUM’, a solo exhibition in 1988 on the lawns of Afrikiko Restaurant, in Accra, Ghana. That marked a huge turning point in my life. Then I collaborated with a group of seven Nigerian artists in ‘NIGERIANA’ an exhibition which took place at the residence of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana in 1991. Many other exhibitions were to follow. The following catalogue some of those exhibitions and activities;

1992 – INCEPTION – Golden Tulip Hotel, Accra

1993 – 1998 – Toured the southern part of Ghana with ‘Studio Club’ mounting exhibitions and organizing workshops for artists.

2002 – Exhibited severally with Practicing Artists International (PAINT) in a number places including St. Petersburg, London and Accra.