Cat Mueller is an emerging artist based in Canberra, Australia. She graduated with First Class Honours from The Australian National University in 2015 from the School of Art painting workshop. In 2016 she undertook a residency at Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS). Mueller was selected for HATCHED: National Graduate Show 2016 at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and traveled to Perth with the help of an ArtsACT Out of Round Funding Grant. In February 2017 she created a site-specific painting for BLAZE XI at CCAS Gorman House. In March 2017 she exhibited a series of small dotted paintings for a solo exhibition, Morph, at CCAS Manuka which will be exhibited at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney in January 2018. In May she exhibited a series of large-scale airbrushed paintings, NONSTOP, at ANCA Gallery, where her painting was acquired by Artbank Australia. In November 2017 she is travelling to Hobart to create a site-specific painting for HoBiennale for which she received CAPO's 2017 Eckersley's Materials Award. Her work is held in the ANU Drill Hall Gallery collection, Prime West Perth collection and Artbank Australia.
She is currently focused on two styles of painting. The first is a series of large-scale airbrushed acrylic paintings. Rows of fast-paced loops topographically dance across the canvas in linear compositions where gestural organic abstraction is contrasted with hard-edge geometric abstraction. The coils are confined to rectangular territories that add compositional structure and tension to the work. Featuring ‘frames within frames,’ multiple atmospheres are spliced together. This configuration of optical effects interrupts the continuous lines causing them to visually expand beyond their boarders alluding to windows into multiple dimensions. The clarity of the airbrushed line varies, appearing to move in and out of focus. This generates continually shifting perceptions. The loops have a stitch-like quality with shading applied underneath or on top of the line. Techniques featured include soft colour gradients, areas of atmospheric dappled watercolor-effect and line work on exposed gesso. Mueller’s distinctive colour relationships include dull-pure, dark-light, transparent-opaque, matte-gloss, complementary and simultaneous colour contrasts to differentiate and create depth at the juncture of each visual portal. The variety of hue, saturation and textural effects unite to create an energetic viewing experience. For BLAZE XI held at CCAS Gorman House in early 2017 she painted directly onto the wall. She installed in a corner, following the rectangular structure of her polyester paintings, to explore how the composition shifts as the viewer moves around the space.
Simultaneously she is working on a series of small-scale acrylic paintings featuring mathamatically modulated colour. They use a dense dotting method rooted in the techniques of the Pointillist’s, who mixed colour within the eye rather than on the pallet. However, unlike their scenes of daily life in the 20th Century, these paintings feature abstract atmospheric fields that emit their own otherworldly light source. The works are also analogous to Impressionist and Pointillist paintings through their use of small quick strokes, lack of colour mixing or layering, and partially exposed white grounds that create a sense of transient dappled light. Each painting has small variations in colour or composition that mutate from the previous. In her solo show Morph, Mueller explored the power of colour relationships by using a minimal composition and a restricted palette of two sets of five corresponding colours. Within these limitations, seemingly infinite atmospheric colour effects can be created. Simultaneous contrast, where the hue of one colour is altered according to the surrounding colours, and other chromatic devices operate optically to enliven colour distinctively in each work. The two colour sets converge in a gradient that is enclosed in a geometric zone, or ‘static field,’ surrounded by an opposing gradient. The occasional subtraction of one or multiple colours in the scheme, as well as the percentage and placement of a colour, demonstrates how slight changes in the overall hue greatly impact the mood of the painting.
She is currently focused on two styles of painting. The first is a series of large-scale airbrushed acrylic paintings. Rows of fast-paced loops topographically dance across the canvas in linear compositions where gestural organic abstraction is contrasted with hard-edge geometric abstraction. The coils are confined to rectangular territories that add compositional structure and tension to the work. Featuring ‘frames within frames,’ multiple atmospheres are spliced together. This configuration of optical effects interrupts the continuous lines causing them to visually expand beyond their boarders alluding to windows into multiple dimensions. The clarity of the airbrushed line varies, appearing to move in and out of focus. This generates continually shifting perceptions. The loops have a stitch-like quality with shading applied underneath or on top of the line. Techniques featured include soft colour gradients, areas of atmospheric dappled watercolor-effect and line work on exposed gesso. Mueller’s distinctive colour relationships include dull-pure, dark-light, transparent-opaque, matte-gloss, complementary and simultaneous colour contrasts to differentiate and create depth at the juncture of each visual portal. The variety of hue, saturation and textural effects unite to create an energetic viewing experience. For BLAZE XI held at CCAS Gorman House in early 2017 she painted directly onto the wall. She installed in a corner, following the rectangular structure of her polyester paintings, to explore how the composition shifts as the viewer moves around the space.
Simultaneously she is working on a series of small-scale acrylic paintings featuring mathamatically modulated colour. They use a dense dotting method rooted in the techniques of the Pointillist’s, who mixed colour within the eye rather than on the pallet. However, unlike their scenes of daily life in the 20th Century, these paintings feature abstract atmospheric fields that emit their own otherworldly light source. The works are also analogous to Impressionist and Pointillist paintings through their use of small quick strokes, lack of colour mixing or layering, and partially exposed white grounds that create a sense of transient dappled light. Each painting has small variations in colour or composition that mutate from the previous. In her solo show Morph, Mueller explored the power of colour relationships by using a minimal composition and a restricted palette of two sets of five corresponding colours. Within these limitations, seemingly infinite atmospheric colour effects can be created. Simultaneous contrast, where the hue of one colour is altered according to the surrounding colours, and other chromatic devices operate optically to enliven colour distinctively in each work. The two colour sets converge in a gradient that is enclosed in a geometric zone, or ‘static field,’ surrounded by an opposing gradient. The occasional subtraction of one or multiple colours in the scheme, as well as the percentage and placement of a colour, demonstrates how slight changes in the overall hue greatly impact the mood of the painting.
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