Vitrine next to the Subjects, 2007
showcase
180 x 120 x 80 cm

Matt Mullican

Matt Mullican (*1951 in Santa Monica, California) studied at the California Institute for the Arts in the early 1950s. His work discussed widely internationally refuses general art categorizations and classifications. Since the end of the 1970s, he has been concerned intensely with performances under hypnosis. Since then, in the state of trance, Mullican has represented the counterpart he reflects on in his work and attempts to trace the relationship between artistic work and projection processes. In doing so, at issue is not a subjective psychoanalytic process, but a typical situation in which action takes place in a context of significant symbols. In the 1980s the development of a complex sign system stood at the center of Mullican’s interest, which claimed to be a comprehensive cosmology. In engaging with the signs, pictograms, and images that surround us in everyday life, pictograms, and images expanded through products of fantasy, Mullican generates by way of repetition, contextualization, and mutual references a highly complex personal language system, with which he tries to grasp his cosmology in models. Encyclopedic, utopian, universal, and cosmological are only some of the terms that obtrude in this context. Since the late 1980s, he has also used newer technologies, such as the computer and the Internet, to develop and present this cosmology. In the virtual media space, city-like systems of order emerge as models of cognitive perception or as models of changing perspectives on different levels of perception, which the artist symbolizes with color.

Matt Mullican’s works have been shown at numerous international art institutions such as MARE Museum, Budapest (2021), Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2018), Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur (2016), The Hammer Museum UCLA, Los Angeles (2014), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2011), Metropolitan Museum, New York (2009), Biennale São Paulo, São Paulo (2018), ICA, Philadelphia, Philadelphia (2008), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2008), Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna (2007, 2000), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2006), Lentos Museum in Linz (2005) and Documenta, Kassel (1982, 1992 and 1997).

Biography

born 1951 in Santa Monica, lives and works in New York

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024
What they see, Mai 36, Zurich

2023
Sunday, August 9, 1908, Peter Freeman Inc., New York
Before Breakfast, Cristina Guerra, Lisboa

2022
Kunsthalle St. Annen and St. Peter's Church, Lübeck, Germany. Organized by Possehl Foundation
MATT MULLICAN, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Bruxelles

2021
Represent the Work, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck
MARE Museum, Bucharest
Things Change in Heaven, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
Centered, Massimo de Carlo, Milano / Belgioioso
Five Walls, Capitain Petzel, Berlin

2020
Representing the five worlds. 50 years of work, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Entering the Picture, Institute of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Split
Matt Mullican: Representing the Work, Musée des Arts Contemporains de la Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, Hornu
Universal Perspective, Peter Freeman, New York

2019
Banner, Skulpturenhalle, Thomas Schütte Stiftung, Neuss/Holzheim
Living in That World, de Young Museum, San Francisco
Matt Mullican, Representing the work, ProjecteSD, Barcelona

2018
What do they feel?, Cristina Guerra Conteporary Art, Lisbon
The Feeling of Things, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

2017
Matt Mullican – Representing That World, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

2016
NOTHING SHOULD EXIST, Kunsthalle Vogelmann, Heilbronn
The Sequence of Things, Camden Arts Centre, London
Nothing Should Exist, Kunstmuseum Winterthur
Between, Capitain Petzel Gallery, Berlin
Rosenwald-Wolff Gallery, Philadelphia

2015
Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Brussels

2014
Books Representing Books, Kunsthalle Mainz
Gasträume 2014, Paradeplatz Zürich

2013
5 Worlds 12 Benches, KÖR, Kunstplatz Graben, Vienna

2012
Two Into One Becomes Three, Klosterfelde, Berlin
Who Fells The Most Pain In The Five Worlds, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Recent Works, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Klosterfelde, Berlin

2011
City, projectesd, Barcelona
Behind That Person, Tracy Williams Ltd, New York
Organizing the World, Haus der Kunst, Munich

2010
12 by 12, Institut d´Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
Work in Residence, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
88 Maps, Maurizio Cattelan, Paris

2009
City As A Map (Of Ideas), Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
Cosmology, Galerie Mai 36, Zurich
Five x Five, Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris
Playground, Kunstencentrum Stuk, Leuven

2008
A Drawing Translates the Way of Thinking, The Drawing Center, New York
Combination of the two, Karsten Schubert, London
Shooting Inside, Johanniterkirche Feldkirch/Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
Subject Driven, Klosterfelde, Berlin
Notating Cosmology, Project SD, Barcelona
Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Pong, Tracy Williams, Ltd., New York (with John Baledessari)

2007
Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Performance: Live Under Hypnosis, Tate Modern, London

2006
Editions and Multiples, Helga Maria Klosterfelde Edition, Berlin
Breaking up is hard to do, Projecte SD, Barcelona
talking the talk walking the walk, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Works from the 70’s and 80’s, Tracy Williams, New York
Direct Cast – Neue Skulpturen, Galerie Daniel Blau, Munich
Room Number 4, Christina Guerra, Lisbon
A guest at the Stuttgart Airport, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Five Suitcases of Love, Truth, Work and Beauty, Christine Burgin Gallery, New York
Kunst auf der Baustelle / Art in Architecture Project, MUSEION, Bolzano

2005
Two Rooms Learning from that Person’s Work, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Model Architecture, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz
Mullican World, Frac Picardie, Amiens
Topiary, Kallmann-Museum, Ismaning
Love, Work, Truth and Beauty, Galerie Nelson, Paris

2004
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Nothing should exist, Tracy Williams, New York
About five videos and some banners, BASE Progetti per l’arte, Florence

2002
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Johann Widauer, Innsbruck

2001
More Details from an Imaginary Universe, Five Worlds: Banners and Flags 1972–2001, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; Kunstverein St. Gallen; Krefelder Kunstmuseen; Museion – Museum of modern and contemporary art, Bolzano

2000
Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Galerie Brigitte Trotha, Frankfurt
Murray Guy, New York
LACE, Los Angeles
Physical Experiment, Galerie Daniel Blau, Munich

1999
Mullican Frame. More details from an imaginary universe, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis

1998
Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris
Brooke Alexander Editions, New York
Stedeljik Museum Schiedam, Schiedam

1996
Works on paper, Janice Guy Gallery, New York
Matt Mullican under hypnosis, Roomade - Office for Contemporay Art, Brussels

1995
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Daniel Blau, Munich

1994
Secession Wien, Vienna
Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg

1993
Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan
Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne

1992
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
Galerie Metropol, Vienna

1991
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro
Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York

1990
PORTIKUS, Frankfurt
The M.I.T. Project, List Art Center, M.I.T., Boston

1989
Projects: Matt Mullican, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles

1988
Michael Klein Inc., New York
Untitled, 1986-87, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
Photographs and Posters, Riverside Studios, London

1987
Concentrations 15: Matt Mullican, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas

1986
The Clocktower, New York
Michael Klein Inc., Amsterdam

1985
Galerie Tanja Grunert, Cologne
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles
Mc Intosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington

1984
Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva
The Queens Museum, Queens

1983
ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

1982
Mary Boone Gallery, New York

1981
Galerie Tanja Grunert, Stuttgart
Galleria Saman, Genf

1980
Mary Boone Gallery, New York

1979
Foundation for Art Resources, Los Angeles

1978
The Kitchen, New York

1976
Artists Space, New York

1973
Project Inc., Boston

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020
Small is beautiful: (A)rtschwager to (Z)augg, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

2019
performance by appointment, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Signs and Systems, Rhona Hoffmann Gallery, Chicago
Line to Form, Danese/Corey Gallery, New York
Outliers and American Vanguard Art, Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, Los Angeles

2018
Bodyscan, Eres-Stiftung, Munich
Bandes à part. Nouvel accrochage des collections, Musée Régional D'Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan, France
CONCENTRATION - a tribute, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Zéro De Conduite: Obras Da Coleção De Serralves, Museu Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto
Umrahmung schräg gekippt. Sammlung Liaunig in Bewegung, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus
The Pulse Of The Body. Uses And Representations Of Space. Per Amor A L’art Collection, Bombas Gens Centre, Valencia
Reduction, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Black and White Landscape. A collection, Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn

2017
Jump Into The Future Art From The 90’S And 2000’S. The Borgmann Donation, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
wanderings, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon
Laboratoire espace cerveau - Station (1)0, Institut d\'art contemporain
Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (IAC), Villeurbanne
20 Jahre Schauraum, Schauraum K3, Simbach am Inn, Germany
Artificial Tears Singularity & Humanness – A Speculation, MAK Wien, Vienna
Collector´s Paradise, Mike Karstens, Muenster
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
RULES, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich
Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice
Collaboration, Quetzel Art Centre, Vidigueira
Variable Dimensions, Artists and Architecture, MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon
The Present Order, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (GfZK), Leipzig
Kölnskulptur #8, Skulpturenpark Köln, Cologne
Vanishing Points, James Cohan Gallery, New York
La Plume et le Crayon: Noir et Blanc, Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Amiens

2016
La Promenade, une balade dans le dépôt long du Cnap, Musée Régional D'Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan, France
Ich Ist Eine Ego-Maschine, ERES Stiftung, Munich
ExtraNatural, Voyage initiatique dans la collection des Beaux-Arts de Paris, In Situ, Paris

2015
Drawing / The Bottom Line, SMAK, Ghent

2014
Texte in der Kunst, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna

2013
Holes in the Walls, Early Works 1948-2013, Fri Art, Kunsthalle Freiburg
Visionen. Eine Atmosphäre der Veränderung, MARTA Herford, Herford

2012
Von Zeichen und Körpern. curated by _Thomas Locher, curated by_vienna 2012, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Ein Wunsch bleibt immer übrig. Kasper König zieht Bilanz, Ludwig Museum, Cologne
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst des Belvedere, 21er Haus, Vienna
Print/Out, Museum of Modern Art, New York
This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Poster Show, Galerie Carlier - Gebauer, Berlin

2011
DEAD Lines. Der Tod in Kunst, Medien, Alltag, Kunsthalle Barmen, Wuppertal
Cambio de Paradigma, Colección Serralves años 60-70, MUSAC, León
Donetsk goes Contemporary, Art Point Donetsk, Donetsk
schrift // bild, Galerie Konzett Graz, Graz
For Eindhoven. The City as Muse, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Out of the Storage. Provisoire & Définitif, Marres Maastricht - Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht
Vermessung der Welt. Heterotopien und Wissensräume der Kunst, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz
ATLAS. How to carry the World on One's Back?, ZKM, Karlsruhe; Deichtorhallen Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg
Back to the future, Kunst Museum St.Gallen, St.Gallen
Arsenale. Grafik aus der Sammlung Museion, Museion d'Arte moderna e contemporanea, Bolzano
Realität und Abstraktion. Figurative und expressive Kunst ab 1980, Museum LIAUNIG, Neuhaus
PLAYTIME. works from Klosterfelde collection, LAC - Lieu d'Art Contemporain Narbonne, Sigean

2010
The Crude and the Rare, Cooper Union, New York
Next Generation, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen
Fisch Gräten Melk Stand - kuratiert von John Bock, Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Berlin
For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn't there, Culturgest, Lisbon
Amerikanische Grafik seit 1960 - Aus der Graphischen Sammlung der ETH Zürich, Kunsthaus Grenchen, Grenchen
Held up By Columns, Renwick Gallery, New York
Shudder: new commissions and exhibitions, The Drawing Room, London
Fine Line, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Held up By Columns, Renwick Gallery, New York

2009
GAGARIN the Artists in their Own Words – The first Decade, S.M.A.K., Ghent
For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn´t there, ICA London
The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984, Metropolitan Museum, New York
Twentysix Gasoline Stations Ed Altri Libri DArtista - Una Collezione, Museo Regionale di Messina, Messina
For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn't there, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis
La planete des signes - Concrete Erudition 1, Frac Ile-de-France, Paris
Playground - Live Art Festival 2009, STUK Arts Centre, Leuven
Utopics 11. Schweizerische Plastikenausstellung, Biel
Collecting History, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
performIC, Innsbruck Contemporary, Innsbruck
Time as Matter. MACBA Collection. New Acquisitions MACBA Barcelona
The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, Metropolitan Museum, New York
INDIRECT OBJECT, Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York

2008
Knocking on Heaven´s Door, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
Vaduz The Message – The Medium as Artist, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum
Whitney Biennal 2008, New York
sehen ganz nah und sehr fern, Städtische Galerie Erlangen, Erlangen
traces du sacré, Haus der Kunst, Munich
Team 404 & John Armleder: Clinch/Cross/Cut, NEW JERSEYY, Basel
The artist is a mysterious entertainer, De Appel, Amsterdam
traces du sacré, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Whitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum, New York
THE PUPPET SHOW, ICA, Philadelphia

2007
auszeit. Kunst und Nachhaltigkeit, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
Beyond the Wall. Berlin – Freihafen der Künste, Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
Fit to Print Gagosian, Gallery Madison, New York
Exhibitionism, CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson
HELLO GOODBYE THANK YOU, castillo/corrales, Paris
Diagrammatic Logic, Museum of Contemporary Art La Jolla
AUTO EMOTION, The Power Plant, Toronto
Vertigo, MAMbo, Bologna
Mapas, Cosmogonias e Puntos de Referencia, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela
REALLIFE 1979-199,0 Artists Space, New York
The Secret Theory of Drawing Model, Arts & Niland Gallery, Sligo
Cosmologies, James Cohan Gallery, New York
ANOS 80: UMA TOPOLOGIA, Museu Serralves, Porto

2006
AUTO EMOTION: Autobiography, emotion and self-fashioning, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Vertigo - The century of off-media art from Futurism to the web, MAMbo, Bologna
Mapas, Cosmogonias e Puntos de Referencia, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela
The Secret Theory of Drawing, Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo
Cosmologies, James Cohan Gallery, New York
25th Anniversary, Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris
John Armleder, John Baldessari, Thomas Bayrle, Matt Mullican, Albert Oehlen, Sturtevant, Lawrence Weiner, Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna
Magasin Réouverture, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble
Breaking up is hard to do, DFOTO, Barcelona
Anos 80: Uma Topologia / The 80s: A Topology, Museu Serralves, Porto
I still love the 20th century, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna

2005
Summer Group Exhibition, Brooke Alexander Editions, New York
Tear Down This Wall: Paintings from the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht, ZKM - Museum für Neue Kunst Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
Wolkenbilder, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aargau

2004
The Big Nothing, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
On Kawara, Ruff, Reis, Iglesias, César, Mullican, Sugimoto, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

2003
Mapping a city: Hamburg–Kartierung, Kunstverein, Hamburg
Re-Production 2, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna

2000
Projects, Massimo De Carlo, Milan
Orbis Terrarum, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

1999
Prepared, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Souvenirs: Collecting, Memory and Material Culture, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton
Text and Signifier, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati

1998
Review, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna

1997
Documenta X, Kassel

1994
first europeans – frühe kulturen – moderne visionen, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

1993
Bineria, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
Transform, Kunstmuseum und Kunsthalle, Basel

1992
Like Nothing Else in Tennessee, Serpentine Gallery, London

1991
Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery, Los Angeles
The Library, Josh Baer Gallery, New York

1990
About Round, Round About, Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund
Le Cabinet d’Amateur d’Art, Galerie Eric Franck, Geneva

1989
The Silent Baroque, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg
Image World: Art and Media Culture, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1988
Matt Mullican, Annette Lemieux, Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco
The Inside and The Outside, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

1987
L’Epoque, La Mode, La Morale, La Passion, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Signes des Temps, Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris

1986
Geometria Nova, Kunstverein München, Munich (with Helmut Federle, John M. Armleder, Gerwald Rockenschaub)

1985
Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles
Made in India, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1984
Totem, Celine Bonnier Gallery, New York
Idea, Galerie Tanja Grunert, Stuttgart

1983
Back to the U.S.A., Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart

1982
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Sweet Art, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York
Idola: Impressionismo Americano, Museo di Sant’Agostino di Genua, Genua

1980
Horror Pleni – Give me Time To Look: Pictures in New York, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan