Artist: Paul Wallach

The sculptures of Paul Wallach follow a stringent, constructive logic. We do not perceive them as static objects, but as movements engaging in a reciprocal exchange with the surrounding space. The wall becomes both a point of departure and a resonant surface: the works detach from it and unfold into space, manifesting themselves in a state of fragile equilibrium.

Wallach’s works are primarily composed of simple, heterogeneously connected materials – wood, plaster, glass, or canvas – that enter into dialogue with one another. The artist is interested not in the stable equilibrium of things, but in the delicate balance they find. His sculptures address the relationship between gravity and material, presence and absence, weight and emptiness. The space between the individual structures, the interstitial space or void, becomes a constitutive moment here: an active force that co-shapes the work. Through this deliberate openness, the exhibition space becomes part of the work; the boundaries between work and environment, interior and exterior, become a play unto themselves.

Wallach’s sculptures are not self-contained objects, but gestures in space and time that they share with the viewer, and whose meaning only manifests itself in the viewer’s experience. The works challenge the viewer to adopt different perspectives. They speak in the interplay of gravity, material, and space. Thus, the sculptures appear as resonance fields – as sensitive systems of concentration and expansion, tension and release. They reveal the movement that underlies all equilibrium: the constant negotiation between hold and fall, the visible and invisible, touch and distance.

This equilibrium remains an open metaphor for the fleeting moment of stability. Wallach seeks the point at which balance emerges, yet at the same time already risks to tip back into imbalance. In this fragility lies the true radicality of his art: the work seems to be in permanent motion, like a still of a process that could assume a different form at any moment. Thus, within the transient, a promise becomes visible – an anticipated transformation of that which is.

Paul Wallach, born in 1960 in New York, lives and works in Paris since 1994. His works have been exhibited at major institutions including the Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, St. Etienne, the Folkwang Museum, Essen, the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, and as part of the Krauthügel art project of the Salzburg Foundation.