Richard Mueller: The Material of Thought

This exhibition presented an examination of the complex work of Halifax-based artist Richard Mueller over the past 12 years. The selection covered some of his most engaging and challenging works, dating from the time he shifted focus from largely abstract painting to the compelling and poetic imagery of fire and light and the materials of industrial steel and glass that continue to occupy him today. Selections from previously exhibited series - such as his mixed media Firebox, Descartes, Syntax, Audobon, Chinese Modern, Inner Light and DND Revisited series - were set in the context of a number of new large glass and steel wall constructions. His recent works employed layered images of car crashes, close-up faces of boxers in the moment of a knock-out punch, and ambiguous representations of emotional states, that continued the metaphor of collision between the rational and irrational that is present throughout Mueller's work. In their process of manufacture and repetitive deployment of emotive imagery, the works make manifest that metaphorical flame of intuition as it is worked on by reason, becoming, as the artist puts it, "the material of thought". This large, in-depth survey was curated by Susan Gibson Garvey, with financial support from the Nova Scotia Arts Council.