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Selected Exhibitions
Juncture. Painting from South Africa, 2010

Caveman Spaceman, 2008

Earthlings, 2006

Ends and Escapes, 2005

Pacifier, 2004

Fix, 2003

Hopeful Monsters, 2001

Superhuman, 1999

Momentum, 1998

Continuum, 1997

Window into the South African landscape, 1994

Contact Me

Hopeful Monsters, 2001 (Hanel Gallery, Cape Town and Frankfurt)
Mullins began the millennium as a nominee for the Daimler Chrysler Award for contemporary South African Art 2000, and later won a merit prize at the ABSA Atelier 2000. This second one-man exhibition at the Hanel, which includes his award-winning series of oil paintings, AnAesthetic for Cruelty and Violence, will be followed by one-man shows at the Royal Over-seas League premises in London and Edinburgh.

The artist is known for his oil paintings which, while skillfully crafted, are invested with a manic energy. His large single-figure Superhumans (1999) have, through a set of anarchic mutations, become single heads, collectively titled Hopeful Monsters. These have retained the complex juxtaposition of abstract and literal elements of his previous work. The viewer is encouraged to share the same journey the artist has undertaken with each encounter with the canvas, and from one image to the next.

AnAesthetic for Cruelty and Violence is a formally composed set of 42 paintings, rigorously created and colouristically sumptuous. Each smaller piece within the whole is the setting for an act or acts of violence, either blatant or inferred. From the jewel-like brilliance of early Western altarpieces to contemporary starkness, there is a rhythm and a beauty which cleverly and clearly sets up the paradox of aesthetic and violence.

Click on the artwork to enlarge it

Hopeful Monsters, 2000
Hopeful Monsters, 2000
oil on canvas
various sizes
Private Collection

Candidate for a Future Generation 1,2,3 and 4, 2002
Candidate for a Future
Generation 1,2,3 and 4, 2002

oil on canvas
24 x 30cm
Private collections

Hopeful Monsters 3, 2001
Hopeful Monsters 3, 2001
oil on canvas
165 x 165cm

Four images from the ABSA Atelier merrit prize winning work, AnAesthetic for Cruelty and Violence, 2001
Four images from the ABSA
Atelier merrit prize winning work,
An Aesthetic for Cruelty
and Violence, 2001,

oil on canvas

Hopeful Monsters, 2001
Hopeful Monsters, 2001
oil on canvas
180 x 180cm
Private collections

Hopeful Monsters 2, 2001
Hopeful Monsters 2, 2001
oil on canvas
180 x 180cm

Four images from the ABSA Atelier merrit prize winning work, AnAesthetic for Cruelty and Violence, 2001
Four images from the ABSA
Atelier merrit prize winning work,
An Aesthetic for Cruelty
and Violence, 2001,

oil on canvas
Artist's Statement