Simon Lee Gallery is pleased to present a selection of recent works on paper by Eric N. Mack to coincide with his curated group exhibition Pedestrian Profanities, currently on view at Simon Lee Gallery, New York.
Often referred to as drawings by the artist, these works on paper represent a core aspect of Mack’s practice and the key processes he employs within the studio that seek to fundamentally explore how painting can operate beyond the medium’s traditional canvas-to-stretcher format. Mack’s tactile assemblages, created from a dynamic combination of used textiles, worn clothes, moving blankets and torn rags, alongside photographs and pull outs from books and magazines, extend and transform the notion of painting. Prior to them existing as individual works, his works on paper often derive from the very processes involved in making his sculptures, wall works or installations: the paper is used to catch dyes as they bleed over the edges of fabric or to protect sections as Mack sprays other areas. As such, Mack’s drawings function as remnants and records of the gestures and painterly experimentations the artist employs throughout his wider practice, one that blurs the line between utility and style, crafting an oeuvre that is absorbed in the duality of deconstruction and reconstruction.
Pedestrian Profanities, curated by Eric N. Mack, is on view at Simon Lee Gallery, New York until 12 December. For further information please visit the exhibition page.
Eric N. Mack was born in 1987 in Columbia, MD and 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 and completed artist residencies at the Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva Island, FL and Delfina Foundation, London, UK. His work has been shown extensively internationally and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2019); The Power Station, Dallas, TX (2019); Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY (2019); Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2018); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2017); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2017). Major group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2019); Desert X, Coachella Valley, CA (2019); Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2019); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2017); Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, MA (2017); Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St Louis, MO (2017); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2016); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2015).
