Artist Heinz Mack Unveils A Series Of Previously Unseen Ceramic Works At The Independent 20th Century Art Fair In New York City

The ceramic pieces are an embodiment of Mack’s lifelong commitment to light, while showcasing the artist’s masterful play with materiality and perception.

Preview Day: September 5, 2024 | Invitation Only On View: September 6 – 8, 2024Casa Cipriani | 10 South Street, New York, NY 10004

Heinz Mack, renowned German artist and sculptor of light, is set to unveil a series of 30 ceramic sculptures and reliefs for the first time in the United States, at the Independent 20th Century Fair at Casa Cipriani in New York City, from September 5 – 8, 2024. Presented by Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art with MACK FOUNDATION, the solo presentation is a testament to the artist’s unwavering dedication to exploring the boundless possibilities of light and its ability to infuse endless motion into the static nature of materials. For over seven decades, Mack has been making paintings and sculptures that harness the intrinsic essence of light. 

As a pioneering figure of the German postwar ZERO movement – led by Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker and Otto Piene – the artist revolutionized the concepts of color, space, and motion. His diverse body of work features paintings, large-scale sculptures made of aluminum, stainless steel, acrylic glass and natural stone, revealing an intricate interaction between light, movement and the environment. In the 1990’s Mack’s practice extends to ceramics, further enhancing his lifelong fascination with luminosity, now woven into the process of moulding clay with fire and beaming through the designs’ textured surfaces. The freedom of a mouldable medium, and the myriads of possibilities to transform the surface of each piece, shapes a new sculptural language.

Paying attention to the surfaces, as light refracts, reflects, inhales and exhales, just like in his renowned light reliefs referring to his pivotal ZERO-era works in polished aluminum, each piece has a distinctive character. The artist’s appreciation for gold, silver, platinum, white or deep black paint, but also very clear, intense monochrome colors, mirrors his exploration of light and color in his painting practice. Mack’s ceramic sculptures can give a sense of temporal vertigo. Elemental and futuristic, they reflect the present within the medium of an ancient practice. Attracted to the longevity of ceramics, Mack expands, “ceramics are not only among the oldest artifacts known to mankind but have also survived for thousands of years without showing the slightest trace of patina. Perhaps in old age the artist has a deeper, unconscious interest in objects that can become very old with dignity.”