Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack was born in 1931 in Lollar, Hesse, Germany, and studied at the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf from 1950 to 1953. He emerged as one of the defining figures of postwar European art through his co-founding of the ZERO movement alongside Otto Piene and Günther Uecker — an international artistic current that sought to dissolve the weight of tradition and open painting, sculpture, and environmental work toward pure sensation. Light, space, and motion have remained the animating forces of Mack's practice across more than seven decades, expressed through a remarkably broad range of media: painting, relief, sculpture, photography, and large-scale environmental installations that transform the conditions of perception itself.

Mack's exhibition history reflects both the sustained critical attention his work commands and its continued vitality. Solo presentations have taken place at institutions and galleries across Europe and North America, including Sperone Westwater in New York in 2011 and 2017, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art in Düsseldorf, Galerie Arndt in Berlin, and a notable collaboration with Almine Rech at the Maison La Roche / Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris. His primary representation through Almine Rech has extended his reach globally, with the gallery presenting his work at Art Basel Unlimited and Art Basel Paris in 2025, as well as mounting the solo exhibition Heinz Mack: From ZERO until Today in New York in May and June of that year. A group exhibition at Almine Rech's Paris Matignon space in 2026, Piene, Mack, Uecker. Light, Space and Time, places his practice in direct dialogue with his ZERO co-founders. The ZERO movement itself is the subject of a dedicated group exhibition, ZERO – Eine internationale Künstlerbewegung, at the Olaf Gulbransson Museum in Tegernsee running into 2026.

The breadth of Mack's current institutional presence underscores his standing across multiple contexts. His work features in Vertigo at the Fondation Carmignac in France, in The Story of Public Art at the MAPS Museum of Public Space Art in Køge, Denmark — a presentation running through the end of 2026 — and in Heavy Metal. Werke aus der Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter at Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch. A solo exhibition dedicated to his photographic practice, Licht im Blick – Fotografie im Werk von Heinz Mack, opens at the ZERO Foundation in Düsseldorf in March 2026. That same year, coinciding with his ninety-fifth birthday, Palazzo Bembo in Venice hosts Heinz Mack. Color in Forma, a solo exhibition that marks the occasion with characteristic attention to color and form. In 2026 Mack also received the ECC Award for Lifetime Achievement, awarded by ECC Italy. The Mack Foundation serves as the active administrative body overseeing authenticity inquiries, certificate issuance, and archival stewardship of his work.