EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND.- The National Gallery of Scotland presents Ron Mueck, on view through October 8, 2006. The astonishing work of Australian-born, London-based sculptor Ron Mueck will be an essential exhibition for visitors this summer to Edinburgh. Ron Mueck is the first exhibition of contemporary art organised by the National Galleries of Scotland in the Royal Scottish Academy Building since it reopened in 2003, as well as Mueck’s first solo exhibition in Scotland. It will include a number of his earlier sculptures, such as Man in a Boat and Mask II, as well as several new works made specifically for this exhibition.

Mueck’s sculptures explore the full life cycle, encompassing birth, adolescence, procreation, middle-age, old-age and death. Because the sculptures are such uncompromising facsimiles of the human form right down to their skin, hair and expressions they cause powerful reactions in the visitor. Larger-than-lifesize figures seem threatening and humbling, as in Wild Man or In Bed, while smaller-than-lifesize creations such as Spooning Couple evoke confidence, humour and even pity. This playful use of scale means that connections can be made with fairytales such as Gulliver’s Travels, Jack and the Beanstalk and Alice in Wonderland.

Ron Mueck was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1958, to parents of German descent. He often made toys as a child and this hobby became his profession. He began his career in Australia as a puppet-maker, creating marionettes for children’s television. In 1986 he moved to the USA and worked in the film industry before moving to London where set up his own model-making business.

Mueck’s fine art career began in 1996 when Paula Rego asked him to make a sculpture of Pinocchio as a model for a series of Disney-inspired paintings she was making for the exhibition Spellbound: Art and Film at the Hayward Gallery in London. The sculpture was exhibited alongside Rego’s paintings and it caught the attention of Charles Saatchi who commissioned Mueck to make a group of works for his collection. One of these sculptures Dead Dad became the surprise star of the now-legendary Sensation!: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection exhibition at the Royal Academy.

In 2000 the National Gallery in London invited Mueck to be their Associate Artist for two years. His subsequent exhibition toured to Sydney, Berlin and Haarlem in the Netherlands. His colossal Boy attracted awe and admiration at the Venice Biennale in 2001. Ron Mueck’s exhibition of five new sculptures at the Cartier Foundation in Paris last year broke all records with an attendance of 110,000.

The power and dream-like quality of many of his sculptures is enhanced by his total mastery of his medium, combined with a profound knowledge of anatomy.

A collaboration between the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Supported by Dunard Fund. This exhibition was realised with the kind help of Anthony d'Offay, London.