Ronald Mueck was born into a family of German immigrants in Melbourne, Australia, on 9 May 1958 . He moved to London, England in 1986 and worked in the film industry before turning to fine art. Mueck is self-taught and internationally recognised for his hyperreal sculptures.
Sculptor Ronald Mueck was born on 9 May 1958 in Melbourne, Australia, into a family of German immigrants. His parents were toy makers and their dedication to craftsmanship had a formative influence. Mueck is self-taught and received no formal artistic training. His early career was rooted in television and cinema, where he worked as a creative director for children’s television programmes, contributing to Australian shows, such as Shirl’s Neighbourhood and Lift Off. In the mid-1980s, he collaborated with puppeteer, Jim Henson, on projects including the 1986 film Labyrinth, where he was instrumental in creating the character of Ludo. He later contributed to the television series The StoryTeller.
In 1986, Mueck relocated to London, where he began fabricating animatronics and models for television and advertising. By the mid-1990s, he had begun shifting away from the film industry to focus on fine art. A turning point came in 1995 with Pinocchio, a hyperreal sculpture of a young boy made at the request of his mother-in-law, the Portuguese-born painter, Paula Rego, for her exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery. Rego later introduced Mueck to the collector Charles Saatchi, who became an early supporter of his work. Mueck’s breakthrough came with Dead Dad (1997), a half-scale, naked figure modelled on the artist’s deceased father, using the artists own hair, which was exhibited in the influential Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Mueck’s work is defined by its fusion of hyperrealism and emotional intensity. His sculptures do not merely replicate the human form; they interrogate it, conveying psychological and affective states with haunting immediacy. Often nude and isolated, his figures evoke feelings of grief, introspection and vulnerability. A distinctive feature of his practice is the manipulation of scale - his sculptures are either monumental or miniature and never life-size - destabilising perception and inviting reflection on mortality and the human condition. His creative process consists of several stages: sketching preparatory studies of his chosen subject; creating an initial clay maquette; using this clay to create a mould; and, casting the final sculpture in silicone or fibreglass. Once cast, the piece is painted and finished with intricate additions, including glass eyes, real or synthetic hair, and tailored garments. Each element is carefully integrated, along with meticulously rendered imperfections at a microscopic level, all contributing to the work’s striking realism.
His first solo exhibition was held in 1998 at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London. Important works include Boy (1999), a five-metre-tall sculpture shown at the Millennium Dome and later at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. In 2000, Mueck was appointed artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London. This led to the exhibition Ron Mueck: Making Sculpture (2003), centred on themes of motherhood and featuring figures of mothers and newborns at varying scales. His 2013-15 travelling exhibition, shown in Paris, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, brought his sculptures to international audiences. Major retrospectives of Mueck’s work have been organised by institutions including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris) and the Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar, The Netherlands), among others. In 2024, Museum Voorlinden hosted the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, including Mass (2016-17). This installation of 100 oversized sculptures of human skulls stripped of individuality evokes imagery of mass graves or ossuaries, inviting a reflection on the anonymous nature of death and the cycles of historical violence. The monumental scale of the skulls dwarfs the human figure, rendering it fragile and highlighting a sense of the relentless passage of time. In 2021 Mueck held a solo show, Ron Mueck: 25 Years of Sculpture 1996–2021 at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. In 2025, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney mounted the largest exhibition of Mueck's work in Australia to date.
Mueck is known for being protective of his privacy and not giving interviews nor talking about his influences or creative process. However, in 2013 he let his friend, the photographer Gautier Deblonde, film him during the creation process, but there was no interaction nor was it followed by an interview. Ron Mueck’s works are held in several UK public collections including the British Museum, Ferens Art Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Royal Academy of Arts, and the Tate.