Heiko Müller (born 13 January 1968) is a German painter.
Overview
Fancy Reaper, coloured pencil on paper, ca. 20 x 20 cm
Heiko Müller works as an independent artist. His works have been exhibited in his hometown of Hamburg as well as in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Paris, Saint Petersburg and Tartu. He also curated several exhibitions in Hamburg. He has a design diploma from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and is also working as a professional media designer and illustrator. He is living with his wife and his two sons near Hamburg.
Work
Heiko Müller's paintings take their inspiration from such diverse sources as medieval icons, Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, folk art and contemporary comics. He gained first attention by combining medieval Christian icons with modern digital art. His latest work is close to the American lowbrow and pop surrealism movement. Characteristics of his paintings are animal illustrations with a very dark and apocalyptic mood, often appearing like modern takes on Bosch or Bruegel motifs. In his own words, he's "particularly thrilled by the kind of spiritual terror you find expressed in the paintings of the old Flemish masters, [...] trying to find out what happens when you apply that mood to the serene and harmless world of rural folk art."[1]
Müller's most recent work marks a return to painting after a long period of drawing with coloured pencils, during which he developed special techniques to make the drawings appear like oil paintings. His preferred media are acrylic and oil on paper and oil on canvas, complemented by pencil drawings.
Müller's art is exhibited and bought almost as often in the US as in his native Europe.
Exhibitions
Solo shows:
2001 “PXP-Guy presents: Black Lines”, Galerie Hinterconti, Hamburg, Germany
2004 "Legendae Aureae", Deutsches Kulturinstitut, Tartu, Estonia
2009 "Stay Awake", Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2012 "Hunting Night and Day", Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2012 "Furtivos", etHALL, Barcelona, Spain
2013 "The Daily Mood of Heiko Müller", Alexandra Grass Gallery, Bielefeld, Germany
2013 "The Watching Hour", Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
2014 "Glades", Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
Group shows (selection):
1997 "Junge Hamburger", with Henning Kles and Till Gerhard, Studio Galerie, Hamburg
