➤ Ron Mueck, Mask II, 2002. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Ron Mueck Solo Exhibition
“Although I spend a lot of time on the surface, it's the life inside I want to capture.” ——Ron Mueck
Encountering these sculptures up close—whether enlarged many times beyond life-size or reduced to an intimate scale, yet rendered with skin and expressions of astonishing realism—one cannot help but feel unsettled. These remarkably lifelike figures, lonely or anxious, seem like fragments of time preserved by the artist and placed within the museum, awakening something deeply familiar within us. Perhaps this emotional intensity arises because, even when the figures' gestures or situations remain incomplete, they readily evoke similar memories of our own: a sleepless night, the heightened sensitivity of adolescence, or the pain of finding oneself immersed in darkness.
➤ Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Mueck's early experience creating props and special effects for film and television enabled him to master modern materials such as silicone, resin, and fiberglass, reproducing pores, wrinkles, veins, and fine body hair with extraordinary precision. Yet his work extends far beyond the creation of realistic human figures. Rather, it seeks to capture the private inner emotional world of human experience, using its startling realism to invite viewers to engage empathetically with the conditions that shape our shared humanity.
➤ Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
➤ Ron Mueck, Angel, 1997. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
➤ Ron Mueck, Ghost, 1998/2014. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
An Eternal Dialogue Between Life and Death, Reality and Illusion
"What does it mean to be human?" The question repeatedly arises when viewing Mueck's work. Mass, an installation composed of one hundred giant human skull sculptures, compels viewers to confront the inevitability of death. Reconfigured by the artist in response to the spatial characteristics of each museum, the work takes on the form of a labyrinth. Only by entering it does one begin to realize that the shadow we fear and instinctively avoid is, in fact, a destiny that awaits us all.
➤ Ron Mueck, Mass, 2016–2017. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Moving on, one encounters a monumental representation of the artist's own sleeping face, as though he were gently breathing and dreaming. Mask II presents an exquisitely detailed likeness enlarged to approximately four times life-size, bringing to mind the old French saying: "Sleep is a little death." It suggests an ambiguous state in which consciousness retreats and the individual exists somewhere between life and death. The title, moreover, seems to ask a further question: can this thin layer of skin truly represent the self, or is it merely a mask?
➤ Ron Mueck, Mask II, 2002. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
Exploring Shared Human Emotions Through the Gaze of the Body
Created in 1997, the early masterpiece Angel depicts a winged man in a state of quiet melancholy, markedly different from the radiant and sacred image of angels familiar to most people. His small body, perched upon a tall stool, accentuates a mood of sadness and contemplation. Although the work provides few contextual clues, the richness of its characterization gives rise to a strong sense of narrative. Ghost, originally created in 1998 and held in the collection of Tate, London, is presented here in the form of a 2014 Artist's Proof. Mueck re-sculpted this sensitive and self-conscious adolescent figure, giving her elongated legs and oversized feet that create a deliberate sense of bodily disproportion. Standing approximately two metres tall, the work further intensifies her palpable awkwardness and emotional vulnerability.
➤ Ron Mueck, In Bed, 2005. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Hasegawa Kenta. Photo courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
Subsequent works, including Man in a Boat (2002), In Bed (2005), and Woman with Sticks (2009), likewise depict situations that are at once realistic and unsettling. They prompt a series of questions: Why is the man in the boat naked, and where is he going? What occupies the thoughts of the woman lying in bed, and why does her expression appear so troubled? Why is the woman gathering firewood alone? These unresolved scenes encourage viewers to seek their own answers. By touching upon shared emotions and experiences, the works ultimately lead our reflections toward broader philosophical questions.
➤ Ron Mueck, chicken / man, 2019. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Masaya Yoshimura. Photo courtesy: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
➤ Ron Mueck, Woman with Sticks, 2009. Installation view: Ron Mueck, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2026. Photo: Hasegawa Kenta. Photo courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
From Individual Solitude to Collective Existence
Among the later works making their Japanese debut, Woman with Shopping (2013), Dark Place (2018), and Chicken / Man (2019) are comparatively smaller in scale, altering the relationship between viewer and sculpture. One feels drawn into a shifting triangular relationship, in which the perspective changes from that of an observer to that of a participant. The woman in Woman with Shopping recalls the exhausted mothers encountered in everyday life; visitors approaching Dark Place may feel as though they are being watched by the man concealed in darkness; and the precarious balance between the man and the chicken seems as if it could collapse at any moment. In this way, Mueck's works remain open to completion through the experiences of their viewers, encouraging us, through our gaze upon these sculpted bodies, to reflect in turn upon our own bodies and, ultimately, upon collective existence. This exhibition continues the artist's long-standing collaboration with the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. Marking Mueck's second major solo exhibition in Japan and his first in eighteen years, it brings together eleven works spanning his career from early pieces to recent creations, six of which are being shown in Japan for the first time. The exhibition also includes documentary films by the French photographer and filmmaker Gautier Deblonde, offering visitors a deeper understanding of Ron Mueck's creative world.
Date | Apr 29, 2026 – Sep 23, 2026
Gallery | Mori Art Museum @moriartmuseum
Organizers | Mori Art Museum @moriartmuseum · Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain @fondationcartier
