Featured Artist 3/21 Jonathan Muelke

Each Weekend the SAM Gallery continues on with The Featured Artist Series. To learn more about this series or to view the schedule please visit our website.

This weekend (March 21st through March 22nd, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. both days).



Jonathan Muehlke was born in Bangkok in 1983. He grew up the son of a U.S. foreign service diplomat and now pastor. Jonathan lived in Thailand, Taiwan, China, Turkey, and the United States. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese in 2007. He is now an artist in residence in the Master of Fine Arts program at Washington University. He has studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA, the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence RI, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, and the Yale University School of Art, Norfolk CT.

Jonathan is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors,including, from Yale, the Ellen Stokel Fellowship and, from Washington University, the Hazel H. Huntsinger Memorial Prize in Painting, the Danforth Scholarship and Freeman Foundation grants from Duke University

Statement by Jonathan P. Muehlke on March 3 , 2009 about his own work

I am interested in the experiential nature of images and objects, narrative and abstract. Abstract expressionism and minimalism are the two art movements that have had a primary impact on my work. Following these historical contexts, I am presently focused on developing a new language, combining Chinese calligraphy, oil painting, and graffiti. Recently I have been interested in painting as a form of story-telling and communication in coded forms. I see these forms as of, but not limited to letters, accounts, poems, prayers, and eulogies. I regard most of my paintings as self portraits, remnants, and performances, albeit somewhat tongue in cheek, reflecting different stages of my life.

The body of work that will be on display investigates humor, meditation, play, and art as a celebration of mystery. Here I endeavor to create a collection of intimate-sized 8x10 inch grey
"haiku paintings" which investigate the numerous shades and processes of grey oil paint. The small works will culminate into larger grey paintings in the future.