Eric N. Mack
Join us on October 14th
Our next NewCrits talk is with Eric N. Mack, an artist whose work keeps stretching what painting can be, and where it can go. Eric’s practice has long moved between the disciplines of fashion, abstraction, and installation—where fabric becomes both color and history, and the gestures of draping, tying, or folding are as conceptual as they are tactile.
As Eric puts it, “the art object, at its most sacred, should reflect altered systems of value, especially in observation of the world’s brutalities.” He uses the image of a seat cushion turned into a flotation device—an object repurposed by crisis—to describe how painting might need to abandon its wall, even its autonomy, to meet the world as it is. It’s a vision of art that’s responsive, contingent, and alive.
We’ll be talking about that urgency—about what happens when value systems shift faster than institutions can hold them, and how artists find new forms when the old ones no longer suffice.
This will be a conversation about painting, yes—but also about adaptation, care, and what it means to make art in a world that keeps changing its terms.
About the Artist
Eric N. Mack (b. 1987, Columbia, MD) lives and works in New York. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union, NY and his MFA from Yale University, 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, FL and an artist-in-residency at Delfina Foundation in London, UK. Institutional solo exhibitions include Lemme walk across the room, Brooklyn Museum, NY (2019); In austerity, stripped from its support and worn as a sarong, The Power Station, Dallas, TX (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 the Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Ungestalt, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2017); In the Abstract, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 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, The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
As Eric puts it, “the art object, at its most sacred, should reflect altered systems of value, especially in observation of the world’s brutalities.” He uses the image of a seat cushion turned into a flotation device—an object repurposed by crisis—to describe how painting might need to abandon its wall, even its autonomy, to meet the world as it is. It’s a vision of art that’s responsive, contingent, and alive.
We’ll be talking about that urgency—about what happens when value systems shift faster than institutions can hold them, and how artists find new forms when the old ones no longer suffice.
This will be a conversation about painting, yes—but also about adaptation, care, and what it means to make art in a world that keeps changing its terms.
About the Artist
Eric N. Mack (b. 1987, Columbia, MD) lives and works in New York. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union, NY and his MFA from Yale University, 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, FL and an artist-in-residency at Delfina Foundation in London, UK. Institutional solo exhibitions include Lemme walk across the room, Brooklyn Museum, NY (2019); In austerity, stripped from its support and worn as a sarong, The Power Station, Dallas, TX (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 the Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Ungestalt, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2017); In the Abstract, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 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, The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Location
WSA
161 Water Street, NY, NY 10038
161 Water Street, NY, NY 10038
Date & Time
Tuesday, October 14th 2025
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM