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Michael Muller is popularly known as a Hollywood photographer, but with his latest project, he’s taking a big bite of the art world. The exhibition “Opposing Instincts” features Michael’s dramatic underwater photographs of great white sharks, as painted over by artist Sage Vaughn. The Outsiders gallery in London, whose starry roster includes Banksy, is showcasing this unusual collaboration and held a private view of the exhibition last night. The response has been enthusiastic, to say the least. The show is all but sold out, and I’m told that a major rock band has purchased one of the pieces for use in the packaging of their upcoming single.
Michael and Sage, both avid surfers, met through a mutual friend in Malibu. “He told me about a project he had been working towards down in Mexico: great white sharks, underwater lighting systems, cages. It all sounded incredible,” Sage recalls in the exhibition’s press release.
“We’d meet and talk about life, art, waves… One day he asked if I wanted to get some paint on one of the photos he took of the sharks. When I looked at those shots for the first time, my jaw dropped. I’ve been obsessed with sharks since I was a little kid, and even more so since I started surfing, but I had never seen shark images like these. Mike had taken such a different approach to portraying these amazing animals. The amount of character contained in these creatures’ faces was so beautiful, I couldn’t help but be inspired. When our first collaborative piece was finished, we knew we were really on to something.”
“What we discovered,” says Michael, “was that for some reason the two mediums worked for us and we really felt what was being co-created. Sharks and butterflies somehow took the fear of the solo shark away. I have been diving with and without a cage among these amazing animals for years and personally know how safe we are from them, but how do I translate that visually? Working with Sage has accomplished that for me. I feel these pieces somehow, some way, show these creatures in the way I feel about them.”
“Opposing Instincts” is on view through October 29 at the Outsiders London. (Download the full press release here.) Here’s a selection of works from the show:
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"Can't Keep Us Back," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"Certainty," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"Instinct," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"At Ease," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"Integrity," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"Love at First Bite," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
"Solitary Confinement," by Michael Muller and Sage Vaughn.
Michael Muller at the Outsiders Gallery in London, on the opening night of "Opposing Instincts."
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[…] ways. In the fall, there was the Outside magazine feature on his photos of great white sharks, plus an exhibition at London’s hip Outsiders gallery. And this weekend marks an even splashier occasion: Michael’s broadcast debut. On Sunday, […]
[…] • London gallery exhibits Michael Muller’s “Opposing Instincts” […]
[…] have teamed up once again. For “Kingdom”—the follow-up exhibition to their 2011 show, “Opposing Instincts”—Vaughn painted directly onto Michael’s Cibrachrome prints of predatory animals such as […]
[…] photos, which he shoots underwater with his own specially designed studio lighting, have landed him gallery exhibitions, a clothing line with Billabong, advertising for Discovery‘s Shark Week, and even his own […]