SUBJECTIVE SIGN WORLD FRAMED WORLD ELEMENTS
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MATT MULLICAN
artist: Matt Mullican
crafter: Viùva Lamego in Sintra, Portugal
in collaboration with: Mai 36 Galerie Zurich
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
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 is used as a mean of tackling the question of the structure of the world, and with his system he aims to portray in symbols every aspect of the human condition in different combinations.It is the common thread throughout his work, which ranges in media across painting, sculpture, drawing and photography, to film, rubbings, installation and also performance.
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.
He has had many institutional exhibitions and his work 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).
VIÙVA LAMEGO
The ceramic tiles for the Matt Mullican editions were produced by the historic tile factory "Viúva Lamego", in Sintra, Portugal. Each tile is painted individually by hand, making each piece unique. 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 first mechanically extruded, then cut, glazed and fired, to be then hand-painted by the experienced ceramic painters at Viúva Lamego, to be then fired a second time.