Philip Mueller

Dubai

The art of Austrian artist Philip Mueller can be described in one word: monumental. As the title already suggests, his current exhibition My Father was Many and I am Happy at Dubai-based Carbon 12 gallery sets sail toward regions unknown, and takes the viewer on an intimate journey, non plus ultra and beyond.

Still in his early twenties, Mueller has already created a unique body of work over the past five years. His oeuvre is a whole universe on its own, oozing of idiosyncrasy. His studio is his dungeon, where the act of painting becomes a shamanistic ritual, and where every canvas initiates a rite of passage. The artist is transformed into an alchemist in search of inner truth and outer space, beyond the usual realms of imagination and material matters. “My Father was Many and I am Happy as a Sailor” is a quest that might seem particular, but Mueller’s intentions are universal: where are we coming from and where are we going? Not only in art, but also in life, in general. For Mueller the answers to these questions are found in the creative act itself: by embracing the inherent narcissism as well as the irony that comes with it. Chaos and structure, excess and asceticism are the coordinates, as the artist becomes a sailor, turning day into night and vice versa: the eternal equinox as a permanent state of mind, his eyes transfixed on a metaphysical horizon, flourishing in the act of creation, yet on the verge of annihilation.

Carbon 12

June 19 – September 6, 2013
Warehouse D37, Alserkal Avenue, Street 8, Al Quoz 1
Dubai
UAE

Calendar