NICC Artist Talk :: Matt Mullican Vol.I

Matt Mullican
This performative lecture takes place 21st of March at Nicc and is organized i.c.w. Galerie Micheline Szwajcer within the framework of Mullicans solo show at GMS (22.MAR.-05.APR.12)

Rather than focusing on the physical art object, Matt Mullican’s body of work addresses how art functions for an individual and the society in which that individual lives. Over the last thirty years, he has developed an intricate framework through which our experience of reality can be dissected. In an enormous range of media, Mullican shows us the amorphous territories lying just below our daily operations.

Each material becomes a context for examination of pure subjectivity, pure materiality, and everything in between. His production - from re-contextualized images to digital spaces to hypnosis performances – separate the layers of our belief structures, exposing reality as a product of the imagination. Notably, much of his recent work explores the persona which has emerged from the hypnosis performances. “That Person” is responsible for a set of works, which expose a more primary worldview and a more real self, capable of existing outside the authority of the physical world. Developed over a period of three decades, the works of Matt Mullican are now considered some of the most influential contributions contemporary art has seen in recent years: his oeuvre is both mysterious and clear, and remarkable for the myriad of media and materials used. Mullican’s range of media and forms of expression extend from fragile models and bulky sculptures, drawings, collages, light boxes, and computer animation to glasswork and textiles, videos, and performance.

Matt Mullican was born in Santa Monica, CA, in 1951. He received a BFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1974. Over the last several decades, his work has been shown extensively in galleries and museums in the U.S. and internationally, and is included in the permanent collections of many major museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, The Ludwig Museum, and The Pompidou Center. He has also completed a number of public and private commissions in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Canada.