'Merv Muhling: Collected Works 1929-2003' publication launch and panel discussion

Join us for the publication launch of Merv Muhling: Collected Works 1929–2003 and a panel discussion with contributors: curator Cathy Muhling; artist and academic Dr Leo Robba; Queensland College of Art Convenor of Jewellery and Small Objects Dr Elizabeth Shaw and QUT Galleries and Museums Director Vanessa Van Ooyen.

Merv Muhling (1929–2003) was a distinguished Queensland artist and teacher who gained his initial art education at the Central Technical College, an early forerunner of QUT, studying with artists Cyril Gibbs and Melville Haysom. He later received a Master of Fine Art from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. From an early age, Merv worked at teachers colleges and colleges of advanced education and had a profound influence as a dedicated teacher of art.

Up until the time of his death, Merv exhibited with the Ray Hughes Gallery. As an artist he showed talent in oil painting, sketching, leatherwork, woodwork, pottery and jewellery. Although he achieved great success as a goldsmith and silversmith, it was in sculpture that he found his true interest. Merv’s last major work is the bronze sculpture Crocheted Doily 2001 installed at the Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane. Artist William Robinson notes, “His later work was complex with a deep understanding of form and the nature of materials.”

Merv Muhling: Collected Works 1929–2003 is published twenty years on from Muhling’s death, with daughter Cathy Muhling and wife Val Muhling the driving forces behind its inception.

Image credit: Merv MUHLING About moths 1991, Eucalyptus twigs, wattle, papier mâché and plywood. QUT Art Collection. Gift of Val Muhling on behalf of the Muhling Family under the Cultural Gifts Program, 2004.

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