Eric N. Mack
Eric N. Mack’s work varies from sculpture and installation, to wall pieces and work on paper. His aesthetic involves a particular type of tactility and usage of common items, primarily those related to clothing. Readymade elements, such as garments, blankets, pegboards, magazine pages, and grommets, recompose and transmute via usage of mediums like acrylic paint, glitter, and dye. Mack’s visual language speaks through these materials, as well as through color and texture, optics and flux. His works flow and shift, alive with a spectrum of hues, irregular shapes, and poetic drama. References to the fashion industry and the figure impart a seductive quality, connecting to identity or a material fiction of desire and intention.
Eric N. Mack (b. 1987, Columbia, MD) lives and works in New York, NY. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union, New York, NY and his MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT. In 2017, Mack was the recipient of the inaugural BALTIC Artists’ Award selected by artist Lorna Simpson and completed the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva Island, Florida, FL and an artist-in-residency at Delfina Foundation in London, UK. Institutional solo exhibitions include In austerity, stripped from its support and worn as a sarong, The Power Station, Dallas, TX (2019); Dye Lens, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2019); Lemme walk across the room, Brooklyn Museum, NY (2019); the BALTIC Artists’ Award 2017, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2017); and Eric Mack: Vogue Fabrics, Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2017). Major group exhibitions include Chronorama Redux, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy (2023); The New Bend, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY (2022); Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); Grace Wales Bonner: A Time for New Dreams, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2018); Ungestalt, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2017); In the Abstract, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, MA (2017); Blue Black, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St Louis, MO (2017); Making & Unmaking: An exhibition curated by Duro Olowu, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2016) and Greater New York 2015, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2015). Mack’s work is in the permanent collections of Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Hood Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Artworks
Eric N. Mack
Tent, 2015
Dye, acrylic, coffee grounds, reclaimed quilts, oversized grommet, assorted microfiber blankets, and metal tent armature
107 x 123 x 139 inches
(272 x 312.5 x 353 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
(Easter) The Spring / The Holy Ground, 2018
Acrylic, dye, and paper on moving blanket
72.5 x 80 inches
(184 x 203 cm)
Photograph by Cooper Dodds
Eric N. Mack
2 FANS, 2015
Folding fans, metal floral armature, dried decorative grass, ribbons, and newspaper
74.5 x 75 x 55 inches
(189.2 x 190×5 x 139.7 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
Floral Expressions of Harlem, 2017
Acrylic, dye, paper, and pins on moving blanket
81.5 x 89 inches
(207 x 226 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
To Fold, 2015
Dye, acrylic, and thread on moving blanket
81 x 64 x 10 inches
(206 x 162.5 x 25.4 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
Bag, 2015
Travel bag with acrylic and dye
36 x 21 x 21 inches
(91.5 x 53.5 x 53.5 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric Mack
Untitled (dwelling), 2015
Acrylic on pegboard with twine, rope, and paper
95 x 83 x 63 inches
(241.5 x 211 x 160 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
A gift, 2015
Bleached silk organza, mesh, bleached oxford shirt, oversized grommet, clamp, and microphone stand
82 x 80 x 95 inches
(208 x 203 x 241.5 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
Pelle Pelle, 2017
Microfiber blanket, polyester, and silk curtains
100 x 189 x 4 inches
(254 x 480 x 10 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
yes, I’m blind, 2018
Acrylic on pegboard
96 x 48 x 1.5 inches
(244 x 122 x 4 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
People say that I’m so funny and I’m like no I’m just a hot ass mess and y’all be laughing at me., 2017
Aluminum flagpole, acrylic, dye, cotton tarp, crystal decal, cardboard, paper, wooden clothes hanger, and cotton overcoat
130 x 119 x 167 inches
(330 x 302.5 x 424 cm)
Photograph by Whitney Lasker
Eric N. Mack
Untitled I, 2018
Dye and ink on paper
39.25 x 27.5 inches
(100 x 70 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán
Eric N. Mack
Untitled IX, 2018
Dye and ink on paper
16.75 x 23.5 inches
(42.5 x 60 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán
Eric N. Mack
Untitled XIII, 2018
Dye and ink on paper
16.75 x 11.75 inches
(42.5 x 60 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán
Eric N. Mack
Halter, 2019
Missoni textiles and rope
Dimensions variable
Photograph by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Desert X
