How everyday aluminium foil became art: Dean Millien’s scrap-to-sculpture story

Aluminium foil is likely to appear in day-to-day usage, but have you imagined aluminium foil in curated artwork? Brooklyn-born self-taught artist Dean Millien has transformed everyday aluminium foil into a distinctive body of animal sculptures, carrying a childhood fascination with handmade toys into the contemporary art world.

His work, recently featured in MoMA PS1’s Greater New York, showcases a decades-long practice built around foil, scrap materials, popular culture and an enduring fascination with animals.

Millien’s journey began in childhood, dominated by toys and television. Born in Brooklyn in 1972, he began creating his own toys after his father discarded his collection. What started with sponges and paper gradually evolved into sculptures made from aluminium foil, a material Millien continues to favour for its availability and durability.

Reflecting on his early creative pursuits, Millien noted, “When people talk about outsider artists, I was actually an insider artist around my house.”

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From pop culture to an animal-focused practice

Millien’s early sculptures drew heavily from popular culture, including Disney characters, Abbott and Costello and later video games such as Street Fighter. He described pop culture and media as something that “calmed my mind down” and allowed him to remain creatively engaged.

After returning to New York City in his early 30s, Millien became involved with community art spaces, including the Con Artist Collective and LAND gallery. His first solo exhibition was held in 2007, while a later residency at Williamsburg’s Summertime gallery in 2019 gave him another opportunity to develop and exhibit his work.

These communal environments helped Millien experiment with different types of foil and tools, eventually leading him to concentrate almost entirely on animals.

“I found a connection with them,” he recounted, describing his lifelong interest in zoos, wildlife programmes and books on animal anatomy, movement and habitats.

Creating animals with aluminium foil

Millien’s sculptures feature a variety of animals like gorillas, crocodiles, cats, mice, moose and elephants, rendered in crinkled, reflective silver foil. To shape the material, he uses hammers and mallets.

Thicker aluminium cooking pans provide internal structures for larger pieces. The artist refers to these thicker supports as “skeletons”. First, the heavier material is crumpled into a structural framework, and then the form is built with layers of light tin foil.

The approach allows a familiar household material to become the foundation for detailed, large-scale sculptures.

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The MoMA PS1 volunteer-turned exhibition artist

Millien’s association with MoMA PS1 predates his inclusion in Greater New York. He used to work as a volunteer at the museum, and attended its summer Warm-Up music series before eventually seeing his own work exhibited there.

For the exhibition, he presented The Cats and the Rats (2026), a playful installation featuring aluminium rats and cats in animated poses. The work combines his interest in animals and cartoon imagery with a distinctly New York-inspired setting.

“This was one of the first real museums that touched my heart,” Millien recalled, adding, “I’d love to show work here.”

Ever since, his relationship with the museum has extended beyond exhibitions, as Millien now leads an aluminium sculpture workshop there. 

An art practice built to outlast its creator

For Millien, aluminium sculpture artwork represents more than a distinctive artistic technique. To him, they embody a practice that has evolved from childhood experiments to a mature career, while remaining rooted in his own instincts.

“I always had intuition, a good feeling about what I liked and what I wanted,” he mentioned.

That instinct continues to guide his work as he draws from art history, popular culture and the natural world. His ambition now extends beyond creating individual sculptures.

“I want to make something that lasts forever, outlasts me,” Millien said. “That is my obligation to the world — make something that outlives me.”

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