1961
born in emmerich
1981-1988
studies of history of art, philosophy and german literature, university of cologne
parallelly free artistical work as drawer and painter
1988
m.a., university of cologne
since 1988
working as artist and communication designer in cologne
1989-1993
interdisciplinary research: “joseph beuys - theory of science and shamanism”,
prof.dr.dr.h.c.mult. peter ludwig, university of cologne
1993
dr. phil., university of cologne
1993-2007
foundation director of the museum pan kunstforum, emmerich
2001-2003
founding member of board "100 beste plakate", berlin
2007
foundation of the (cross) cultural networking association „culture.net“
2007-09
visiting professor of contemporary european art, school of art and design, university of derby (uk)
2009-2012
member of board and director of the ostrale, dresden (with andrea hilger)
2009/10
foundation of the art academy network project "iam international art moves" / with partner academies in spain, lebanon, brunei darussalam, montenegro, indonesia, hong kong, peru, poland, croatia, cyprus, singapore, new zealand, turkey and the czech republic
2010
visiting lecturer, university of nicosia (cy)
visiting professor, faculty of fine arts, marmara university, istanbul (tr)
2011
visiting lecturer, academy of fine arts, university of zagreb (hr)
2012
visiting lecturer, e. geppert academy of fine arts wrocław (pl)
visiting scholar, academy of visual arts, hong kong baptist university (hk)
visiting lecturer, academy of fine arts, university of granada (es)
visiting lecturer, alba académie libanaise des beaux-arts, beirut (lb)
2013
visiting scholar, academy of visual arts, hong kong baptist university (hk)
2014
visiting lecturer, faculty of arts and design, university of brunei darussalam (bn)
visiting lecturer, alba académie libanaise des beaux-arts, beirut (lb)
2015
visiting scholar, academy of visual arts, hong kong baptist university (hk)
2016
artist in residence, fondazzjoni kreattività - spazju kreattiv / st. james cavalier, valletta, malta and meta foundation, gozo / malta
2017
visiting scholar, academy of visual arts, hong kong baptist university (hk)
2019
visiting scholar, academy of visual arts, hong kong baptist university (hk)
exhibitions (selection)
1980
plakatmuseum am niederrhein, emmerich (group)
1983
schlößchen borghees, emmerich (solo)
1986
galerie provence, köln (solo)
1988
plakatmuseum am niederrhein, emmerich, 20 years plakatmuseum (group)
1989
b.nonhoff objektdesign/galerie, iserlohn (solo)
1992
galerie bock, aachen (solo)
1993
stadthaus herriger tor, erftstadt (solo)
1995
kunstverein emmerich, emmerich (solo)
artoll labor, bedburg-hau (group)
1999
galerie rexing, kleve (solo)
school of art and design, university of derby, uk (solo)
2006
pan kunstforum, emmerich am rhein / e.on mitte, kassel / „heyoka” (group)
2009
ostrale - international festival of contemporary arts, dresden (group)
2011
aep akademie - medienzentrum hamburg (solo)
2012
kunstraum göbel, bonn (solo)
artexpert artspace, paris, france (solo)
2013
ictvc - international conference on typography and visual communication, nicosia, cyprus (group)
art athina / art fair / represented by tsatsis projects - artforum, thessaloniki / athens / greece (group)
2014
ostrale - international festival of contemporary arts, dresden (group)
im friese, kirschau / „manipulation" (group)
2015
künstlerverein malkasten, düsseldorf / „stigma und exotisierung“ (group)
annenkirche, st.petersburg / russia / "deutsche woche" (group)
galerie vorn und oben, eupen / belgium / „next 1“ (group)
kscs, soongsil university, seoul / korea / „color works - purple“ (group)
art centre bethanien, berlin / „a time of gathering“ (group)
galerie vorn und oben, eupen / belgium / „accrochage" (group)
2016
industrieverbände neustadt an der weinstraße / „martin müller" (solo)
far off / art fair / cologne (group)
galerie vorn und oben, eupen / belgium / „no smoke without fire" (solo)
c.a.r. contemporary art ruhr / art fair / essen (group)
galerie des stadtarchivs dresden (solo)
gozo contemporary, gozo/malta, „dito“ (with anne müller)
2017
weithorn galerie düsseldorf / duesseldorf photo weekend / „dasgehtinsauge " (solo)
valletta international visual arts (viva) festival / messina palace, german-maltese circle / valletta, malta
zeche fürst leopold / dorsten / „%SALE" (duo)
collective workspace maastricht / the netherlands (group)
2018
galerie horster bonn / "von flamingos und macke" (solo)
st james cavalier / "found a mentalism 2" / valletta european cultural capital 2018, malta / curated by andrea hilger and antka hofmann, ostrale (group)
since 1993
more than 300 exhibitions as curator in germany, england, holland, belgium, usa, france
contact
martin.mueller(at)heyoka.eu
design
project partners / selection
anke - arnhem, nijmegen, kleve, emmerich, akademie der künste - berlin, embassy of the netherlands - berlin, german embassy - paris, embricana - emmerich, emv – ernst martin verlag - berlin, beiersdorf ag - hamburg, edition zeitgeschichte - bonn, e.on mitte ag – kassel, euregio rhein-waal - kleve, fachhochschule für öffentliche verwaltung nrw, goethe-institut paris, goethe-institut/internationes - bonn, gvp gemeinnützige werkstätten bonn, haus der geschichte - bonn, isowol - emmerich, richard smith - los angeles, j.l. romen - emmerich, jobst - emmerich, katjes - emmerich, brune & partner - bochum, kulturbetriebe emmerich, kulturraum niederrhein - moers, pan kunstforum - emmerich, mauer & partner - bochum, emmerich city council, rees city council, stadtsparkasse emmerich-rees, aep - hamburg, stadtwerke emmerich, themata – potsdam, trapp - wesel, russian book club/united nations - new york, verband druck + medien nordrhein – düsseldorf, landespräventionsrat nrw - düsseldorf, friedrich-ebert-stiftung - bonn, graphisches berufsbildungswerk / medienzentrum - hamburg, ostrale - dresden, galeria szyb wilson - katowice / poland, chudoscnik sunergia - eupen / belgium, verband druck und medien niedersachsen - hannover, axel springer ag - berlin
fine arts
„the attitude of martin müller seems to be equivalent to the structural analyses of the anthropologist claude lévi-strauss. he described “the raw and the cooked” as binary pairs of an opposite where the “raw” is associated with “nature” and the “cooked” is associated with culture. in guyana e.g. the rule demands the destruction of the smoke hut after the meat has been smoked in there: if the product (smoked meat) is stable, the means of production (hut) has to be instable. the balance between nature (the sphere of the dead animal) and culture (smoked meat) always has to be assured.
for a long time now martin müller is engaged with putting different levels of expression and different levels of reality together so that they come to coexistence. the diptych (“sum up” 1988) e.g. combines a very expressive way of painting with a very precise and accurate style.
after working with quotations of art history over a period of time he started to use digital airbrush techniques in the year 2000. of all the paintings created from that time on “heyoka” (2000) is of special importance: here, as before, two heterogeneous layers of images lie upon each other. in a significant way the subject has been painted over with a dynamic red color. the viewer is tempted to associated interpretations as used in gestalt psychology. while his works on paper come across as collages the works on canvas create a spatiality caused by the different layers of reality put together. at the same time the artist does consequently without any foreshortening or any other techniques that follow the rules of perspective.
paintings like “kachina sunday 2”add the written word as an additional layer. the dolls of the hopi indians are called “kachinas”. here they are only part of the title but not actually depicted in the picture itself. instead in the left part of the diptych we see a portrait of the poet gottfried keller and an elephant image created by otto pankok. The right part of the picture insinuates a period of time in france when the romanesque changed to gothic architecture.
in the works of martin müller the image of an elephant occurs frequently. if one uses iconographical-semantical analysis, his painting could be characterized as being structural in the sense outlined before. his painting is concerned with what is meant (the object pictured) and at the same time with what is meant by the poetic and metaphorical content of the sign.“
jürgen raap
(in: „heyoka – energie, materie, transformation“, pan kunstforum, emmerich / e.on mitte, kassel 2006, catalogue, p.8)
