Artist's Talk Matt Mullican

Over three decades, New York artist Matt Mullican has created an exceptionally complex oeuvre, articulated in different media such as painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography, as well as videos, performances, and installations.

Since the end of the 1970s, Mullican (born in Santa Monica in 1951) has been intensively occupied with performances under hypnosis. His interest in the trance was aroused by his work with the line-drawn figure Glen, which represents a kind of alter ego of the artist. Through this extensive series of drawings, Mullican attempted to find the key to the relationship between artistic work and processes of projection.

During the 1980s, Mullican's primary interest shifted to the development of a complex system of signs or symbols with a claim to a comprehensive cosmology. These works are among the most challenging by an American artist to emerge in the 1980s and can be found in important private and public collections all over the world.

Presented by Ohio State’s Department of Art.