This mise-en-scène of the paints and solvents in Mulligan’s studio beautifully conveys her interest in duality: elegance with sprawl, precision with chaos, stillness with movement. Appropriately for a painting of paints, the work has a rich surface of linear marks and dabs of bright color against a muted background. Combining underpainting, drawing, and overpainting, the artist creates a shifting space where objects appear and disappear.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Mulligan studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), and the University of Indiana–Bloomington. She currently lives in Brooklyn and specializes in images of millennial women that both embody and challenge the complicated legacies of Y2K-era popular culture. Mulligan has been the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation as well as a residency at Vermont Studio Center. Her paintings have been exhibited in Philadelphia, Indiana, New York, Los Angeles, London, and beyond.
