Matt Mullican in Rome. From a Lecture-Performance at MACRO to a Solo Exhibition at Studio Varroni
On 12 November, the artist traces over fifty years of artistic practice in Representing the Work. 1972–2026. The following day, Le forme del pensiero / The Forms of Thought opens at Studio Varroni – Eos Libri d’Artista.
Two events in Rome bring the narrative and exhibition dimensions of Matt Mullican’s practice into dialogue, highlighting the work of one of the leading figures in international post-conceptual art. On Thursday 12 November 2026 at 6 pm, MACRO hosts the lecture-performance Representing the Work. 1972–2026, presented as part of a project conceived and curated by Piero Varroni for Studio Varroni – Eos Libri d’Artista. The event precedes the opening of Mullican’s solo exhibition Le forme del pensiero / The Forms of Thought at Studio Varroni on Friday 13 November.
Active since the early 1970s, Mullican has developed an extensive vocabulary of signs, diagrams, pictograms and symbols through which he investigates how we represent and organise reality. From performance and environmental installation to sculpture and digital graphics, his practice explores the relationships between reality and fiction, subject and object, consciousness and the unconscious, questioning the boundary between individual experience and shared systems of knowledge.
In Representing the Work. 1972–2026, the artist offers a first-hand account of the development of his practice, from his works of 1972 to his experiments with digital animation and virtual reality. Images of artworks and video materials accompany a lecture spanning more than fifty years, offering audiences an insight into the processes and structures of thought that underpin his work. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
The programme continues the following day at Studio Varroni – Eos Libri d’Artista, with the opening of Le forme del pensiero / The Forms of Thought. A constellation of photographs, drawings, texts, images and diagrams reflects the diversity of the artist’s visual languages and the central role of representation in his practice. The exhibition complements the live presentation with a direct encounter with the works, inviting visitors to explore the relationships between images, signs and the construction of meaning.
The lecture-performance and solo exhibition form two complementary parts of a project centred on Mullican’s thinking: his ongoing investigation into how we perceive the world and the forms through which we seek to understand it.
LECTURE-PERFORMANCE Matt Mullican. Representing the Work. 1972–2026Thursday 12 November 2026, 6 pmMACRO, Auditorium – Via Nizza 138, RomeFree admission, subject to capacity.The event will be held in English and followed by a Q&A with the audience.
SOLO EXHIBITION Matt Mullican. Le forme del pensiero / The Forms of ThoughtOpening: Friday 13 November 2026Studio Varroni – Eos Libri d’Artista
Matt Mullican (Santa Monica, California, 1951) lives and works between New York and Berlin. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts, receiving his BFA in 1974. His practice spans a range of artistic languages and media, investigating processes of perception, representation and the subjective construction of experience. Since the mid-1970s, he has also developed a performance practice that includes working under hypnosis, through which he explores different states of consciousness and identity. He has participated in three editions of documenta (1982, 1993, 1997), the São Paulo Biennial (2008) and the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). His major solo exhibitions include presentations at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan (2018), the de Young Museum in San Francisco (2020) and That Person’s Heaven at Palazzo della Ragione in Bergamo (2025). In 2022, he received the Possehl Prize for International Art. His works are held in the collections of international institutions, including MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate and the Centre Pompidou.
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