Mezzanine Gallery

The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery is pleased to present A Good Tree, a solo exhibition of new work by Milton Downing, on view June 5 – July 3, 2026. An opening reception will be held Friday, June 5, from 5 – 7 p.m., in the Mezzanine Gallery, located in the Carvel State Office Building at 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. Admission is free and open to the public.

A Good Tree draws on the biblical image of the good tree as a framework for exploring growth, refuge, and unseen connection. Working in his signature Juxt58 style, Downing combines fabric, found materials, and paint into assembled compositions that begin in close observation of the natural world and evolve through instinct. In his hands, branches, water, and sky become grounds for emergence – faces, figures, and presence surface from within the forms, suggesting that what is visible often carries something spiritual, waiting to be recognized.

Downing describes his process as “spontaneous thinking in congruence with mechanical precision” – an approach he calls Juxt58. Discarded clothing and other found objects are gathered into painted compositions that act as records of human experience, elevating subjects across backgrounds and circumstances through expressive color and gestural paint. The works in this exhibition extend that practice into the natural world, finding in trees and landscapes a deeper image of endurance, community, and shared life.

Milton Downing is an assemblage artist, educator, and curator based in Townsend, Delaware. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Temple University in 1983 and a Master of Science in Art Education from Delaware State University in 2011. He taught visual art in the Brandywine School District for nearly three decades (1991–2018) and in the Appoquinimink School District from 2018 to 2021, earning multiple Teacher of the Year honors across his career, including recognition as Delaware Elementary Art Educator of the Year (2014) and Delaware Middle School Art Educator of the Year (2021). He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Lincoln University and as Art Director of the Gibby Summer Art Camp.

Since 2005, Downing has served as Curator of the Ed Loper Gallery, honoring the legacy of the late Wilmington painter and arts educator Ed Loper Sr. He has exhibited widely as a solo, juried, and group exhibitor throughout the region. His work is rooted in the traditions of Dada, Pop Art, and Abstract Expressionism, with influences ranging from Mark Rothko and Paul Cézanne to Surrealism.

Couldn’t attend the gallery or just want to relive the experience? Check out our photo albums of each event on our Flickr account.