EXHIBITION | Willehad Eilers & Philip Mueller

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".