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Eric N. Mack: All the Oohs, and the Aahs

Wex Commissioned Project

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Two works by Eric N. Mack. An orange packing blanket with a collage of news articles and images hangs on the wall. Translucent multicolored fabric drapes from a microphone stand.

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Aug 23, 2025–Jan 11, 2026

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Free for all audiences

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Engage with the art of Eric N. Mack, who is expanding the notion of painting and other media through his remarkable use of fabric.

Fashion, textiles, painting, and space converge in Eric N. Mack’s work to create a unique visual vocabulary that challenges traditional ideas about painting and sculpture. At the core of Mack’s practice is an investigation into how materials, particularly textiles, can offer fertile ground for experimentation. He probes the history of art, architecture, and fashion. His use of fabric is not just an aesthetic choice but an investigation of its ability to evoke specific emotional and social responses, something that he emphasizes with the titles of his pieces, sometimes drawn from literature.

Fabric stands out in Mack’s individual works and his medium- and large-scale installations, which often combine different materials. Ladders, ﬂagpoles, rods, chain-link fence, and pieces of fabric come together in works that refuse categorization. Mack has an archive of fabric collected from different sources—from specialized stores in Harlem and Manhattan to fashion houses and renowned global brands like Missoni. These textiles feature in many of his pieces along with images from magazines and newspapers, as well as other printed material.

As you move through the installations, you will experience the way that Mack addresses the relation between space and the body and raises awareness of the body’s movement. His works invite us to engage, to consider questions like, “What is the painting? What is the exhibition space? What is my physical relationship to sculpture? What does it look like for me to walk through an exhibition?”

Unique to this presentation is Mack’s new Wex-commissioned installation, which will be on view in the lobby from early August 2025 through May 2026.

"What is the painting? What is the exhibition space? What is my physical relationship to sculpture? What does it look like for me to walk through an exhibition?"

—Eric Mack, Document, January 28, 2022

A black, red, brown, and green translucent fabric hangs from an extended microphone stand and drapes across the floor.

Eric N. Mack, A gift, 2015. Bleached silk organza, mesh, bleached oxford shirt, oversized grommet, clamp, and microphone stand, 82 x 80 x 95 in. © Eric N. Mack. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Morán Morán, Los Angeles.

A gray pegboard supports a pink fan and a collage of multicolored fabrics and objects that flow from the top left to the bottom right of the composition.

Eric N. Mack, Drifter in a Silk Ragshirt, 2021. Folding fan, wooden dowels, bleached silk, cotton t-shirt, silk scarves, denim, cotton spandex, satin, and dyed driftwood, 94 x 48 x 16 in. © Eric N. Mack. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Morán Morán, Los Angeles.

Sewn and knotted translucent multicolored fabrics span a gallery, affixed to the wall, hanging from flag poles, and suspended from a tall metal stand.

Eric N. Mack, Landlord, 2021. Umbrella, wood flagpoles, metal brackets, fabric collage, and thread, dimensions variable. © Eric N. Mack. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Steven Probert.

A rectangular stretcher is covered with a collage of overlapping, multicolored fabrics. Conjoined vertical and horizontal strips form a curving cross.

Eric N. Mack, There is No Other Way, 2022. Silk and wool scarves, cotton apron, Irish linen, rope, ribbon, polyester, felt, cotton shirt, and wool, 128 x 88 in. © Eric N. Mack. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Morán Morán, Los Angeles.

A shiny orange packing blanket with a collage of newspaper articles and images affixed to it hangs on the wall.

Eric N. Mack, We make it easy, you make it home, 2020. Dye and acrylic on paper, index cards, and newspaper on moving blanket, 78 x 70 in. © Eric N. Mack. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Morán Morán, Los Angeles.

An adult male with light brown skin with buzzed brown hair, a beard, and moustache stands in front of conjoined pieces of fabric.

Portrait of Eric N. Mack, 2021. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. © Eric N. Mack. Photo: Daniel King.

More about the artist

Eric N. Mack (b. 1987, Columbia, Maryland) attended The Cooper Union, New York, (BFA) and Yale University, Connecticut, (MFA) and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and residencies. His institutional one-person exhibitions include Scampolo!, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin (2022); Lemme walk across the room, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2019) and NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Florida (2021); In austerity, stripped from its support and worn as a sarong, The Power Station, Dallas, Texas (2019); and Vogue Fabrics, Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2017). A one-person exhibition of Mack’s work will open at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, in September 2025. Learn more about the artist.