Matt Mullican
Matt Mullican’s parallel universes have been emerging since the early 1970s as a sociological anthropology of unconscious processes of everyday life. Central to his work is the systematization, structuring, and ordering of personal worldviews that oscillate between subject and object, between a personal and a universal worldview. Mullican’s works circle around the perception as unconscious interpretation of sensible reception of realities.
As a dyslexic, Mullican tries to grant language a significance that goes beyond its code, beyond writing, lending it a transparence in the use of images. The relationship between signs and the signified, the relationship between word and image, indeed signification’s very degree of reality is the object of his work. The pictograms he develops, the icons, are the radical mediatization and recodification of symbolically abbreviated means of communication — just as writing functions as the encoding of processes of communication.
Mullican, who has participated in documenta several times, develops his cosmology as a model representing our lifeworlds and an exemplary attempt of constructing a comprehensive world model according to his subjective point of view, lending it artistic content. In so doing, the artist is fully aware of the emotional original of his cosmology, in various media and materials. Impossible to classify in terms of development, ever since his studies with John Baldessari the artist has continued to add new details to his imaginary universe. With the exploration of construction processes of the world of images and signs surrounding us, he undermines monocausal patterns of interpretation, linear connections and subverts teleological expectations.
For this exhibition, a labyrinthine architecture with colorful painted walls has been installed in the gallery, in which the various levels of cosmology are interlinked with one another using his own theory of color. Within this model, the color green stands for the level of physical elements, blue for the world unframed, yellow for the world framed (creative powers and art), black and white for language and red for the sphere of subjective meaning. The individual spaces of the cosmology are played out in processes that in part emerged under hypnosis. Spatial models like tin sculptures, written canvases, etc. open out-branching layers of subcategorization that in their detail trace out the course of an entire day, menus, or unconscious processes of feeling and thought.
Mullican works with the methods of encyclopedic categorization and archiving, by forcing these concepts over other structures they are made visible. Archetypical issues like heaven, God, life, destiny, material, and spirit, death and hell stand alongside one another and are given no moral evaluation. In its complexity, Mullican’s work contains a tragic moment — in the hopeless attempt to classify the world.
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
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