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Emily Mullin

Woman on Top

November 15 – December 23, 2018

Gallery view of Emily Mullin ceramics

Installation view of Woman on Top

Gallery view of Emily Mullin ceramics

Installation view of Woman on Top

Gallery view of Emily Mullin ceramics

Installation view of Woman on Top

White checkered vase on pink and white checkered shelf

Pleasure Palace, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
30 x 18 x 8 inches

Three white patterned vases, on blue and white background

Garniture, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
36 x 36 x 8 inches

Five white vases, on purple and white shelf

Top 5, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
32 x 38 x 8 inches

Black and white vases on black and white shelves

Like So, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
22 x 23.5 x 6 inches

White patterned vase on blue shelf

Showtime, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
21 x 14 x 6 inches

White patterned vase holding flora, on red and white patterned shelf.

Gloriosa, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
20 x 14 x 6 inches

 

White ceramic vases with black dots, on green shelf with white spots

Peinture Au Point, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
32 x 38 x 8 inches

Three white ceramic cases, displayed on blue shelf with black lines

Curves, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
30 x 24 x 8 inches

White patterned ceramic vessel with orange back-piece

Staring Contest, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
21 x 14 x 8 inches

Individual view of yellow ceramic vases

Bananas, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
30 x 24 x 8 inches

White patterned ceramic vessels, displayed on white spotted back piece

Triumphal (Bolas de Cabra), 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
28 x 24 x 6 inches

Small brown ceramic vases

Together Forever, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
14 x 10 x 6 inches

Emily Mullin ceramic green vase, holding flora

Sauce On It, 2018
Ceramic vessel, painted steel, flora
30 x 18 x 8 inches

Jack Hanley Gallery is excited to present 'Woman On Top', Emily Mullin’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. 'Woman On Top' presents a new series of wall-mounted reliefs of ceramic vessels and flowers on hand-painted steel shelves.

 

Mullin’s three-dimensional still lifes explore the potential of the frame, the tradition of still life painting and forms of representation. The bent displays on which the vessels and floral arrangements are placed replicate the form of the cyclorama - the photographic space that dissolves the line between floor and wall. By extending the shelf’s patterns onto the actual space of the gallery’s walls, Mullin spins a web of meta presentations between the flat image, object, and real space.

 

Mullin’s visual and historical influences can be found in a variety of genres including ancient Cycladic vessels, Gunta Stozl’s heavily patterned weavings, the pleasure palaces of Rajasthan, Jerome Robbins choreography, the frivolous decorative style of Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte, design motifs from the Eighties, and fashion photography.

 

Alluding to the human body, each vessel is uniquely shaped, some placed individually, some as pairs or in small groups. Each vessel in the front room is patterned with a wax resist before it is dipped in white glaze, and the raw clay body beneath reveals itself after firing. The colors range from a creamy white to a deep burnt umber brown. The ceramics in the back space of the gallery are fired in the traditional Japanese process of Raku in which the pieces are removed from the kiln while they’re still glowing hot, and placed in containers of combustable materials to achieve painterly glaze effects and crazing. The sprouting nature of the flowers and foliage placed inside of the vessels emphasizes that the work is both haptic and optic— they are activated when they are adorned. Proud, almost theatrical, they carry themselves in a grand manner, eager to take on the stage.

 

Emily Mullin (b. 1984 in Santa Monica, CA) lives and works in Brooklyn. She studied at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA and at Goldsmiths, University of London in London, UK. Recent solo exhibitions include shows at Lucien Terras, New York, Tennis Elbow, Brooklyn, and Sunday Takeout in Brooklyn. She has been included in group exhibitions at Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, Mrs. Gallery, Queens, Kate Werble Gallery and Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York.