PITTSBURGH, PA.- Mattress Factory announced the opening of REIFICATION, a new exhibition by Eugene Macki, a multi-disciplinary artist from Hackney, East London. In their largest and most ambitious project to date, Macki continues their decade-long exploration of making the intangible, tangible. Through performance, sculpture, and installation, their work acts as a transformation and a reification.
In a room with walls covered in thick, viscous rubber, visitors encounter a sloped wooden walkway cutting through the middle of the gallery, extending the full length of the space. Surrounding this walkway are hundreds of rubber-coated sculptures, buried amidst a landscape of thousands of meticulously cut cardboard pieces. Evoking the Terracotta Army of China as well as archaeological sites in Greece, REIFICATION references these ancient monuments while becoming an activated site for discovery.
At the very back of the room, the artist explores the body in space through three videos, each presenting a series of performances by Macki and collaborator Michelle Boulé, filmed within the empty gallery. The straightforward, starkly shot videos show the artists exploring how their movements activate the space.
REIFICATION is also a reflection of Macki's interest in the ubiquity and value of objects. By manipulating simple materials like roofing rubber and cardboardtypically associated with practical needsMacki repurposes them in ways that defy their original use, in many ways stripping away their conventional value. Here, the artist draws our attention to the significance we assign to objects and spaces, challenging us to rethink what we deem important and meaningful.
Eugene Macki is a member of the British Art Network and the Royal Society of Sculptors (UK) and was a 2023/24 NXTHVN Studio Fellow in New Haven, CT. Macki holds a Masters degree in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts in London and attended residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR among others. Macki has exhibited their work at the National Liberty Museum, Pennsylvania; The Salisbury Museum, UK; the Royal Academy of Arts, UK; GroundWork Gallery, UK; Aspex Gallery, UK; and performed at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York among other venues. He recently exhibited with James Cohan at the Campus.