Ron Mueck Works on Exhibition

Couple Under An Umbrella, 2013. Matériaux divers, 300 x 400 x 500 cm (environ), Courtesy Courtesy Caldic Collectie, Wassenaar.

Ron Mueck’s work is on display in Paris with a total of nine mixed-media works completed between 2002-2013. Ron Mueck's solo show is at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, which will be on view until the end of September 2013. It is the first major European show since 2005 dedicated to this UK-based artist known for his small and large-scale, hyperrealist sculptures.

While many artists strive to glamorize, and portray our world to be better than it actually is, others simply find art in our ordinary lives and our simple bodies. Mueck is one of those artists, and is now well known for his super realistic sculptures where he portrays humans at key stages in the life cycle, from birth through middle age, to death.

Based in London, Ron Mueck has had highly acclaimed exhibitions around the world from Japan to Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, but shows of his new work in Europe have not been frequent occurrences. Mueck works slowly in his smallNorth Londonstudio, making time itself an important element in his creative process. His human figures are meticulously detailed, with surprising changes of scale that place them as far from academic realism as they are from pop art or hyperrealism.

Dead Dad, his first work immediately thrust him to the forefront of the twenty first century sculpting scene Dead Dad (1996–97), commemorating the death of Mueck's father through a smaller than life-size sculpture, which captivated al who viewed it.

His earlier pieces were sculpted with fiberglass, but recently he has begun to work with silicone, which is more flexible and allows greater ease in shaping body parts and implanting hair.

ED MCCORMICK

Edmund McCormick is the founder of Cape Crystal Brands and EnvironMolds LLC. He is the author of several non-fiction “How-to” books, past publisher of the ArtMolds Journal Magazine, editor of Beginner's Guide to Hydrocolloids, and author of six eBook recipe books available for download on this site. He resides in Far Hill, NJ and lives and breathes his art and food blogs as both writer and editor. You can follow him on Twitter and Linkedin.