Paul Wallach

Paul Wallach was born in New York in 1960. He studied Art at the University of Wisconsin, and Applied Arts at the University of Boston, after which he moved to Florence for a year to live and work. On his return to America, he was awarded a fellowship in Visual Arts from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, before participating in a residency with Mark di Suvero in the late 1990s. After completing his residency programme, Paul spent two years in Düsseldorf before moving to Paris in 1994, where he continued to develop his sculptures and wall objects.

In 1996, he participated in Projekt Z: an Artist in Residence programme in Salzburg, Austria. He was a participant in the World Trade centre Memorial Competition in 2003 and more recently, in 2007, he was a recipient of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation residency programme. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout his artistic career, particularly in France and America.

Growing capitalism and global mass media epitomised America in the 1980s, together with a boom in the music and fashion industries. A young adult at the time, Wallach experienced this turbulent cultural period. However, he rejects consumerist culture in his oeuvre; his work is modest, focused and subtle.

Wallach’s sculptures and wall objects are primarily composed of diverse yet simple materials such as plaster, wood, glass, canvas, paint and steel, which are carefully interlinked to create balance. Wood is often central to Wallach’s work, serving as the supporting mechanism for the suspended structures. Wallach creates unity between his work and their surrounding space through absence: carefully orchestrated gaps in his structures allows for the free movement of space within and around the works, which in turn blurs boundaries between inner and outer.

Wallach has had several solo exhibitions in public institutions, including the Musée d’Art Modern et Contemporain, St. Etienne, the Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and the Gemeentenmuseum in the Hague.

In 2018, Paul was invited to create an installation marking the closing of the Kunstprojekt Krauthügel an art cycle initiated by the Salzburg Foundation. The four-point installation will remain display in Salzburg until 2024.

Paul Wallach continues to live and work in Paris.