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REALITY KINGS

Exhibition


2021


In partnership with Carbon 12 (Dubai), Harlan Levey Projects presents the first collaborative exhibition of Willehad Eilers and Philip Mueller. Titled “Reality Kings,” the exhibition consists of a series of four handed paintings as the two artists make use of their respective specific skills in order to build a body of work that is neither Eilers’ nor Mueller’s. The crude lines typical of the former, clashing with the refined style of the latter, merge into a new production that is not so much a planned project as the result of fruitful serendipity. What keeps the artist's work together is their similar approach to narration, as both populate a world with recurring characters playing out scenes of debauchery, boredom, and isolated luxury on an arranged stage. As a centerpiece of the exhibition, is a large-scale painting that acts as an ode to Thomas Couture’s “Romains de la décadence”, a 19th century work depicting vice in Ancient Rome. The Roman poet Juvenal declared that "Crueller than war, vice fell upon Rome and avenged the conquered world".