SUBJECTIVE SIGN WORLD FRAMED WORLD ELEMENTS

art-edition with ceramic tiles by Matt Mullican

SUBJECTIVE SIGN WORLD FRAMED WORLD ELEMENTS X MATT MULLICAN

artist: Matt Mullican

craft: Viúva Lamego in Sintra, Portugal

In collaboration with: Mai 36 Galerie Zurich

image of tile edition and catalogue of Matt mullican

This edition by Matt Mullican comprises a suite of five multicolored, traditionally processed and hand-painted terra-cotta tiles, produced by Viùva Lamego in Sintra, Portugal, housed in a wooden box.

5 tiles, each tile 14 x 14 cm

Edition of 64, each labelled and numbered with certificate

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Colorful tiles with symbols on a white wall ledge and a round wooden stool on a wooden floor.

This tile edition by Matt Mullican consists of five hand-painted tiles, which depict the five symbols of his cosmology, used to explain the world and its representations. Within Mullican’s pictorial universe, each color corresponds to different levels of perception: green stands for material, blue for the everyday world, yellow for ideas, white and black for language and red for the subjective.

This system of signs and pictograms serves as a mean to question the structure of the world. Through it, Mullican seeks to represent every aspect of the human condition in symbolic form. It forms a unifying thread across his diverse body of work, which spans painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, film, rubbings, installations, and performance.

Square card with a red background displaying a black silhouette of a person's head with a blank circle at the top, resembling an open head or thought bubble.
Black and white square icon with a circle and a smaller square with a circle inside, mounted on a white wall.
A yellow square object with a black circle and a globe icon inside a yellow square on the globe, resembling a logo or symbol.
Square blue device with a white globe icon in the center on a white background.
Green cardboard with four white circular stickers arranged in a 2x2 grid.
Minimalist art gallery with a wooden table and chairs in the center, colorful geometric paintings on white walls, concrete ceiling, and a column support.

MATT MULLICAN

Matt Mullican studied at CalArts in Los Angeles and is considered a member of the “Pictures Generation”.

Since the 1970s, American artist Matt Mullican has been interested in models for explaining the world. His work oscillates between various antagonisms, reality and fiction, subject and object, the conscious and the unconscious.

His work has been widely shown in institutional exhibitions and is found in numerous international public and private collections, notably the MoMA (New York), Tate Modern (London), Haus der Kunst (Munich), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).

Stacks of unfinished ceramic tiles arranged on racks in a warehouse with high ceilings and large ducts overhead.

VIÚVA LAMEGO

The ceramic tiles for the Matt Mullican editions were produced by the historic tile factory "Viúva Lamego", in Sintra, Portugal. Founded in 1849, Viúva Lamego holds over 175 years of expertise, continuing the legacy of Portuguese azulejos — the art of hand-painted ceramic tiles.

The tiles are made from local clay which is sourced from their own quarry located in the surrounding area of the factory. The production of the tiles follows a traditional process, where the clay is mechanically extruded, then cut, glazed and fired, to be then hand-painted by the experienced ceramic painters at Viúva Lamego.