Exhibitions: Ron Mueck

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  April 2006: Ron Mueck, a solo exhibition of ten works by the sculptor Ron Mueck, known for his extraordinarily lifelike, empathetic renderings of his subjects, will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum from November 3, 2006, through February 11, 2007.
  The exhibition includes five major new works, commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, where they were recently presented to an enthusiastic audience of 75,000 visitors. Five additional works on loan from North American collections will be added to the Brooklyn exhibition, the only United States presentation before the show travels to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
  
  Born in Australia in 1958, Mueck began creating his scrupulously detailed sculpture in the 1990s. His works are so lifelike, with veins, wrinkles, sagging skin, and body hair, that viewers almost expect them to breathe.
  
  Included in the exhibition will be Dead Dad (1996-97), commemorating the death of his father through a somewhat smaller than life-size sculpture, which captivated Brooklyn Museum visitors when it was included in the exhibition Sensation. Among the other works included in Ron Mueck will be Wild Man (2005), a nine-foot sculpture of a naked, bearded man clutching the stool he is seated on, and Head of Baby (2003), a more than eight-foot-tall head of a newborn infant.
  
  Through his detailed works, which are always either smaller than life size or monumental, Mueck explores the ambiguous relationship of reality to artifice through strategies of imitation and illusion. 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.
  
  After working in Australian television as a puppet maker, Ron Mueck went to Los Angeles in 1986, where he worked in the film industry, and later moved to London. For a time he worked for Jim Henson on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show. For more than a decade, he has focused on creating his sculptures, which have been the subject of previous solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and have been included in several group exhibitions.
  
  The Brooklyn Museum presentation is organized by Charles Desmarais, Deputy Director for Art at the Brooklyn Museum. A bilingual catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
  

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Press Coverage of this Exhibition

• THE NEW SEASON -- ART; From Landscapes by Constable to Lyrics by DylanSeptember 10, 2006 By KEN JOHNSONAnnotated listing of art shows scheduled to open September 2006 through June 2007; photos (L)
• Discord at Brooklyn Museum Over Curatorial ChangesOctober 5, 2006 By RANDY KENNEDYCuratorial staff at Brooklyn Museum is causing deep dissension within institution's ranks, playing part in resignation of three veteran curators and two board members; actions are in response to museum doing away with traditional departments and replacing them with two 'teams,'one for collections and one for exhibitions; museum director Arnold L Lehman describes changes, which were adopted without seeking approval of museum board, as badly needed step to make Brooklyn's relatively small curatorial staff more efficient and to encourage curators to exchange ideas more freely; some curators see changes as way to diminish traditional power to conceive, propose and organize exhibitions; photo (M)
• ART REVIEW; Giant Baby, Dead Dad and Others, Realer Than RealNovember 10, 2006 By GRACE GLUECKGrace Glueck reviews exhibition of sculptures by Ron Mueck at Brooklyn Museum; photo (M)
• The Listings: Nov. 17 - Nov. 23November 17, 2006 "Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional..."
• THE LISTINGS | NOV. 24 - NOV. 30November 24, 2006 "Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional..."
• The Listings: Dec. 1 - Dec. 7December 1, 2006 "Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional..."