LOS ANGELES, CA.- Using the traditional medium of egg tempera, McCracken makes complex geometric abstract paintings. Hard-edged, luminous colour shapes and lines overlap, outline and crisscross the multi faceted colour field, creating new interwoven geometric spaces. Flowing painted lines, tracing pathways, travel across the painting, draw the viewers gaze around the panel. The viewer is encouraged to take time and traverse the unique pictorial universe existing within the edges of the panel. Starting without pre planning or drawing, each painting evolves and becomes a conversation between artist and the painting, mapping the artist’s studio practice, creating a visual diary and illuminating the history of it’s making. Individual pieces can take several months to complete and as they progress they develop their own unique dialogues, creating a distinctive micro – macro visual experience. Through multiple layers, the evolution of the painting is exposed in the complicated overlapping intricacies, which illustrate the moment to moment decision making process and call to mind plans, mazes or puzzles to be unraveled.

Shaun McCracken was born in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland.

He attended St. Martins School of Art, London from 1983-4 and Goldsmiths University of London from 1984-7. Lives and works in Santa Monica, California.

Working primarily with paper and card, pigment and linseed oil. Müller bends, scores, folds and teases the material into his distinctive three-dimensional forms in which both positive and negative spaces are at play with one another. Müller creates architectural / sculptural forms which although non-representational reference the body, wall based and tabletop pieces are domestic and human in scale. There is little ‘colour’ in these sun bleached pieces, subtle variations in tones of ivory and white, allow light to play an important role in defining the forms. The tactile surfaces and haptic nature of these organic/architectural shapes are at once familiar and strange, making one think of a pale skin drawn tight, wrapping space. Their textures and scored lines remind the viewer of industrial design and manufacturing techniques that are then confounded by the artists choice of material – humble paper, elegantly elevated to the status of carved marble.

With his minimalist, architectural sculptures, Müller bridges the experience of the eye with the body. He merges the environment and surroundings into his work, creating an installation that engages the viewer through thoughtful placement and a deep understanding of light, space and tactility.

Manfred Müller was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. From 1967 to 1970, he apprenticed as a technical draftsman, receiving his state license as an engineering draftsman. From 1971 to 1975 he studied visual communication at the university in Düsseldorf. From 1976 to 1981 he attended the Kunstakademie of Fine Art in Düsseldorf—studying as a master-class student under Erwin Heerich (1922-2004). After leaving the Kunstakademie in 1981 he was awarded a Cité des Artes Scholarship, Paris, France and received the Grand Price for Fine Arts of the City of Düsseldorf in 1983, and the German Industry Endowment of the Arts in 1985. He was selected to be part of the exhibitions Dimensionen IV and Dimensionen V, which were shown throughout Germany between 1984-1987. He was one of seven German artists of the inaugural exhibition Boñ Angeles supported by Goethe-Institut, Lufthansa, IBM and the City of Los Angeles to open the new Santa Monica Museum of Art.

Recent selected solo and group exhibitions include: Not from Here, ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles, 2017; Objects Are Closer Than They Appear, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2014; Framing Abstraction: Mark, Symbol, Signifier, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2011; Heliotropo, Galería López Quiroga, Mexico City, Mexico, 2010.

Müller works as a sculptor in Düsseldorf, Germany and Los Angeles, California.

The exhibition is on view at ROSEGALLERY through April 22.