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Egged on by his family, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh finally opens MutMuz Gallery to the public

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Mark Mothersbaugh has a diverse range of roles: He’s known for composing music for films and TV shows like “Rugrats” on Nickelodeon, four movies directed by Wes Anderson, including Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” and he’s currently collaborating with Pixar. Toddlers often recognize him at airports due to his appearance in the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!”, where he hosted a segment called “Mark’s Magic Pictures.

Among all the hats designed by the multitalented artist, none are as instantly recognizable to a particular music enthusiast group as the custom-made red plastic “energy domes” sported by Devo. Essentially, these were the “backwards plant pots” initially donned by the band Mothersbaugh co-founded at Kent State University back in the early 1970s. Recently, Devo appeared on “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” and their farewell tour that started in 2023 has been extended.

In a sunny midweek not long ago, an artist hailing from Akron, Ohio is preparing for his first solo showcase of paintings and prints – titled “Why Are We Here? No. 01” – which will officially open this Friday at his own gallery, MutMuz Gallery. He’s been the proprietor of this space, a blend of hipster and vintage charm on Chung King Road in Chinatown, for some time now, but until now has kept it private.

Couldn’t it be beneficial to share your artwork with others earlier on? It seems that the prolific multi-talent has a blend of feelings about selling his artworks, not due to a lack of them. Over the past three decades, he’s been producing almost one piece daily, amassing thousands of thoughtfully arranged works in archival-sleeved books. Many of these pieces feature cryptic, sometimes multi-lingual quotes penned with his cherished Sumi-e brush pens. For instance, “It was a one act play… that lasted 75 years.

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Under the direction of Chris Smith, ‘Devo’ delves into the background of the band from Ohio art students, known for their plastic attire, as they introduced unconventional thoughts to the mainstream music scene of the 1980s.

The musician skilled at playing multiple instruments actually wrote the initial lyrics for the Devo song “Uncontrollable Urge” on a card, but sent it to a fellow who exchanged postcard artwork with him. However, come the next band practice, he discovered he had inadvertently forgotten the verse.

After that point, I ceased sending the cards; instead, I began hoarding them. I figured they’d never be displayed to anyone. Approximately 70,000 items might be in my collection. Moreover, I have warehouse storage for my paper works, along with additional pieces.

The habit of collecting things, which this self-described nerd proudly labels as such, has led to a total of 165 visual and auditory art displays. Among these are his personal traveling exhibition, titled “Myopia.”

Or more concisely:

The nerd’s compulsive collecting habit has yielded 165 artistic exhibits, including his own traveling retrospective called “Myopia.

Stepping into the spotlight with MutMuz, he invites us into a unique exhibition. The towering ceilings and cold concrete flooring house a gallery where larger canvas paintings adorn the upper walls, while screenprints occupy the lower spaces. As I walk through, I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia; each piece once graced the walls of his personal sanctuary, a space he cherished deeply. With a warm smile, he reflects, “Every single item in here, at one point in time, brought me immense joy to have it hanging in my room, and I loved it.

At first, Mothersbaugh planned to be quite involved with the gallery; however, COVID-19 struck, significantly altering his plans as he explained. Encouraged by his family who urged him to launch the gallery, he is now ready to open its doors. Despite ongoing effects from the virus (Mothersbaugh has long-term COVID symptoms), he’s managed to keep creating music for shows like “The Residence” and “A Minecraft Movie”, traveling, and producing artwork. The majority of pieces in “Why Are We Here? No. 01” were made during the pandemic period.

In the show, there are 10 oil paintings and 10 limited-edition screenprints, none of which are framed. The only frames in the room belong to Mothersbaugh’s unique silver eyeglasses, designed for his nearsightedness. However, several of his paintings feature handwritten sentences along their edges, providing context for the artwork. Not every piece has this border detail yet.

With just a week left before the opening, none of the artwork has been priced or titled yet. It appears that Mothersbaugh might feel a broken heart if someone were to make a purchase without proper labels. He’s openly admitted to being a “collector,” and it seems his collection encompasses an immense amount of his own work.

Jeffrey Deitch, a renowned art dealer based in New York and L.A., was once keen on displaying Mothersbaugh’s artwork. According to Mothersbaugh, what surprised Deitch was that the pieces were quite affordable. Mothersbaugh explained, “I receive numerous emails from young individuals who send me pictures of my art above their beds, expressing it as the first piece of art they’ve ever purchased.

Deitch informed Mothersbaugh that the minimum price for his client’s work should start at $50,000. Despite liking Deitch, Mothersbaugh politely refused due to reasons unknown. Mothersbask’s artwork, similar to Devo’s music, is characterized by its energetic, humorous, intellectual, and charmingly peculiar nature.

As a connoisseur and maker of transient items, Mothersbaugh’s preferences carry a bittersweet depth. One artwork in “Why Are We Here?” was inspired by an early life event. Looking at the piece, the artist reminisces, “I remember shouting for aid as I was being pursued by a duck when I was 4 years old. My family just watched. I stumbled upon a basement window and shattered through it.” This vivid image might soon adorn someone’s home.

As a discerning movie critic, I’d express this as: “When someone mentions purchasing one of my artworks, I often find myself asking, ‘Shall we wait for me to complete the border?’ Upon closer inspection, I see opportunities to enhance certain pieces even further. For instance, I could envision myself visiting a home and subtly enhancing a bare wall with additional elements, or perhaps adding detail to a descending plane in a painting, or even writing a thought-provoking phrase over the hood of a car.

Mothersbaugh had always envisioned himself as a band member, but he decided to attend Kent State University to pursue his passion for art, focusing on printmaking and calligraphy in particular. With an extensive knowledge of various cultural and sociopolitical issues, he views himself and his work as that of a “social scientist.” As he puts it, “I’m simply recording the things I observe. I do it through cartoons. I believe I use a lot of cartoon-like imagery because it helps me feel less agitated towards people when I can transform them into cartoon characters, even myself – just look at that self-portrait with the big clown nose and protruding ears,” he says, gesturing to a sketch. The artwork is fittingly small, like a postcard, and features two 10-cent Cuban stamps.

His inspiration seems to lean more towards whimsical childhood drawings or oddities found in a thrift store rather than artists such as Rene Magritte or Lucian Freud. All his oil paintings originate from tiny postcard-sized artwork. A recent influential figure for him is Jack White, whom he hasn’t informed that the piece, depicting a masked man in an old-fashioned suit with the words “Donc c’est tout. Nashville,” was created after their meeting. Regarding the French text on this piece, Mothersbaugh laments his lack of fluency in multiple languages. Instead, he admits to sometimes translating what he wants to say using Google and then displaying it in another language if he finds the translation appealing.

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For several weeks, Mark Mothersbaugh, a co-founder of the band Devo, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Hospital and connected to a ventilator. His thoughts were plagued by intense and disturbing hallucinations.

Mothersbaugh’s artwork is produced within the famous architectural structure known as Mutato Muzika headquarters, a unique, neon green circular building on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. This gallery’s name, Chinatown, is borrowed from the nickname of his production studio, which is a combination of “Mutant” and “Potato.

He explains, “Some of these items find their way into various creations,” he gestures towards the album art and moves around the brightly lit room, as the scent of incense from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association wafts over the pedestrian-only path. “However, a majority of it is self-expression for me. It’s like sounds I pick up at odd hours or ideas that suddenly hit me in the middle of the night. I simply piece together fragments of these disparate elements.” The final product often carries an atmosphere reminiscent of a palimpsest.

Mothersbaugh expresses gratitude as his “day job” in music provides the finances for his art accumulation and creation.

frankly, the business aspect of running a gallery isn’t as captivating as simply setting up exhibits, chatting with folks, and allowing them to experience pieces that might spark their emotions.

In multiple roles, Mothersbaugh is a master multitasker, yet admits to occasionally feeling puzzled about how it all fits together in his mind. “I can’t quite figure out my own mind,” he confesses. “I look at my siblings and think they’re more intelligent than I am. They make wiser decisions, while some make poor ones at times.” However, he adds, “I often feel that the people around me are more exceptional. I just happen to be compulsively organized about organizing things.

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2025-04-11 13:33

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