Listen to me carefully, you bunch of snobs: when examining Tauba Auerbach’s work, one does not simply admire a few paintings in a Chelsea gallery. One plunges headfirst into a unique universe where the laws of quantum physics dance with the oldest artisanal traditions, where mathematics becomes tangible, and where abstraction paradoxically reveals the most intimate structure of our reality.
This American artist born in 1981 in San Francisco perfectly embodies the spirit of her time: that of a generation that grew up with the internet but refuses digital ease, mastering the most sophisticated theoretical codes while keeping their hands in the material. Since settling in New York, Auerbach has developed an artistic practice that defies any categorization, navigating with disconcerting ease between painting, sculpture, typography, glassmaking, weaving, and even musical instrument creation.
The Geometry of the Invisible
Tauba Auerbach’s work revolves around a fundamental obsession: making the invisible visible, giving form to the most dizzying abstractions of our scientific era. Her famous “Fold Paintings,” created between 2009 and 2013, are the most striking example. The process, deceptively simple, reveals a remarkable conceptual complexity: the artist first crumples her canvases, creating deep folds that she allows to set for several days, then unfolds the canvas on the studio floor before applying acrylic paint with a paint gun, held at a calculated angle to mimic the effect of natural light falling on a crumpled surface.
The result defies any perceptual logic: these flat paintings bear the perfect imprint of their previous three-dimensional configuration, creating a disturbing optical illusion that reverses the traditional principle of trompe-l’oeil. Whereas pictorial tradition sought to create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface, Auerbach produces the opposite effect: a real depth, documented in the very material of the canvas, generating the illusion of relief on a strictly flat plane.
This approach finds its deepest resonance in contemporary architecture, particularly in research on minimal surfaces and complex topological structures. The parametric architecture of Zaha Hadid or Peter Eisenman’s formal investigations of folded surfaces find in Auerbach’s “Fold Paintings” a striking plastic echo. But whereas contemporary architecture uses digital tools to generate complex forms, Auerbach proceeds through direct physical manipulation, thus revealing the tactile and bodily dimension underlying all geometry, even the most abstract.
The artist pushes this architectural logic even further with her “Weave Paintings,” where she directly weaves canvas strips onto the stretcher, creating monochrome or two-tone compositions that explore the infinite visual possibilities of simple grid crossings. These works, exemplary in formal sobriety, reveal shadow and light effects of extraordinary subtlety, transforming the traditional canvas into an autonomous architectural structure.
The architectural dimension of her work finds its most ambitious expression in her installations and public art projects. “Flow Separation,” the spectacular intervention she carried out in 2018 on the fireboat John J. Harvey in the port of New York, demonstrates her ability to apply her plastic research at an urban scale. Inspired by naval camouflage techniques developed during the First World War, she created a “dazzle painting” pattern based on the laws of fluid dynamics, literally transforming the boat into a monumental kinetic sculpture navigating the Hudson.
This work reveals the deeply political dimension of her approach: by revisiting military camouflage strategies through the prism of contemporary art, Auerbach subtly questions the relationships between aesthetics and power, between scientific innovation and geopolitical domination. The boat’s architecture becomes the medium for a reflection on the power structures that organize public space, while the formal beauty of the pattern transcends its initial function to become a pure aesthetic experience.
In her more recent works, notably the “Grain Paintings” series developed since 2017, Auerbach pushes this logic of revealing hidden structures even further. Using custom tools inspired by traditional veining or wood imitation devices, she scratches the surface of canvases covered with several layers of semi-dry paint, revealing by subtraction fractal patterns of hypnotic complexity. These works, presented in heavy aluminum frames that accentuate their sculptural dimension, seem to float between painting and architecture, between surface and volume.
This architectural approach to painting finds its theoretical foundation in the artist’s topological research. For Auerbach, topology constitutes an “architecture of connectivity” that allows thinking about forms beyond their immediate appearance, focusing on the structural properties that remain invariant despite deformations. This topological conception of artistic space explains her fascination with intertwined forms, complex surfaces, and objects that seem to defy traditional dimensional categories.
The Poetics of Uncertainty
But Tauba Auerbach’s work does not simply explore the formal possibilities of contemporary art. She delves into the heart of the most dizzying questions of our time, those touching the very foundations of our understanding of reality. Her fascination with quantum physics is not a mere conceptual borrowing or a trend: it reflects a deep intuition of the epistemological transformations of our era.
The video work “Pilot Wave Induction III”, created in 2018, perfectly illustrates this speculative dimension of her work. In this hypnotic nine-minute piece, Auerbach films silicone droplets moving on the surface of a speaker vibrating at different frequencies. The droplets form perfect spheres that move on the fluid surface without ever losing their autonomy, creating a spectacle of mysterious beauty enhanced by Greg Fox’s percussive soundtrack.
This work is directly inspired by the pilot wave theory, an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics developed by Louis de Broglie and David Bohm. According to this theory, now abandoned by the scientific community, quantum particles would be guided by “pilot waves” that determine their trajectory [1]. Auerbach does not seek to scientifically validate this hypothesis: she seizes its poetic potential to create a visual meditation on the mysteries of matter and energy.
This approach reveals the deeply literary dimension of her work. Like great science fiction writers, from Philip K. Dick to Liu Cixin, Auerbach uses the most advanced scientific concepts as narrative material to explore the zones of uncertainty of our time. Her approach resembles that of an author like Jorge Luis Borges, who used mathematics and logic to construct vertiginous fictions about the nature of reality.
The literary influence is particularly evident in her editorial projects. Since 2013, she has been developing, under the aegis of Diagonal Press, a publishing practice that deliberately blurs the boundaries between visual art and literature. Her most ambitious project in this area remains her “reorganization” of the Bible, where she alphabetically arranges all the letters of each word of the sacred text, transforming the founding work of Western culture into a conceptual poem of absolute radicality.
This work reveals the subversive dimension of her literary approach. By applying a purely formal logic to the biblical text, Auerbach lays bare the linguistic structures underlying all discourse, revealing the fundamental arbitrariness of any system of meaning. This approach echoes the most radical experiments of contemporary literature, from Raymond Queneau’s Oulipian constraints to Jacques Roubaud’s textual deconstructions.
Her typographic creations also testify to this literary sensitivity. Each typeface she designs constitutes a kind of hollow portrait of a particular era or state of mind. “Fig Font”, created in 2006, reflects an aesthetic still marked by the digital optimism of the 2000s, while her more recent creations reveal an increasing formal complexity that echoes the uncertainties of our time.
This literary dimension culminates in her practice of “Ligature Drawings,” a series of drawings started in 2019 where she traces continuous serpentine shapes that simultaneously evoke surrealists’ automatic writing and the most abstract scientific notations. These works, of striking meditative beauty, constitute a form of visual poetry that transcends the traditional distinction between figuration and abstraction.
The artist describes these drawings as a form of “technological research” that allows her to reach a trance-like state conducive to reflection. This almost mystical dimension of her work reveals the influence of the Beat literary tradition, that literary improvisation of automatic writing as a direct expression of consciousness, particularly visible in her approach to creation as a form of active meditation. Like Jack Kerouac developing his technique of “spontaneous prose,” Auerbach explores the expressive possibilities of a gesture freed from any representational constraint.
Her recent series “Foam Paintings” pushes this poetic logic even further. Using microscopic photographs of soap foam, she transposes these images through a meticulous pointillist process onto Dibond panels, creating compositions of dizzying visual complexity. These works simultaneously evoke the molecular structures of living matter and the most distant galaxies, revealing the secret correspondences that unite the infinitely small with the infinitely large.
This ability to reveal hidden connections between seemingly disparate phenomena is the distinctive hallmark of her literary genius. Like the great metaphysical poets, from John Donne to Emily Dickinson, Auerbach possesses that rare faculty of perceiving the deep unity that underlies the apparent diversity of the sensible world.
An Aesthetic of Connectivity
The exhibition “S v Z,” presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2021, constitutes the most accomplished synthesis of this research. The title itself reveals the conceptual sophistication of her approach: the letters S and Z function as distorted mirror images of each other, while the “v” does not mean “versus” but represents the mathematical symbol “and/or” [2]. This calculated polysemy perfectly illustrates Auerbach’s method: starting from seemingly simple formal elements to reveal unsuspected conceptual complexities.
The installation itself bears witness to this approach. Rather than following a classical chronological progression, the exhibition organizes the works according to two overlapping grids: one aligned with the gallery walls, the other rotated by 30 degrees, creating a non-hierarchical path that encourages the visitor to establish their own connections between the works [3]. This innovative scenography makes the exhibition itself a work of art embodying the topological principles dear to the artist.
The Auerglass Organ, a collaborative instrument created in 2009 with musician Cameron Mesirow, occupies a central place in this constellation of works. This pump organ requires two performers who must coordinate their movements to mutually power their respective keyboards. The instrument perfectly illustrates the philosophy of connectivity underpinning all of Auerbach’s work: no creation can exist autonomously; every creative process involves a form of collaboration, even if invisible.
This collaborative dimension finds its most recent expression in the “Org” series, glass bead sculptures woven to simultaneously evoke complex molecular structures and traditional lace. These works, extraordinarily delicate, testify to the technical mastery the artist has developed in working with glass, after learning this discipline from specialized craftsmen. This approach of perpetual learning reveals an essential dimension of her artistic personality: the refusal to confine herself to a single know-how.
Her recent “Spontaneous Lace,” created in her personal glass furnace installed in her studio during the pandemic, pushes this logic of material exploration even further. These fused glass laces, strikingly poetically fragile, arise from the encounter between a controlled gesture and the physical laws of vitreous fusion. They perfectly embody the philosophy of “free will,” which gives its name to her latest solo exhibition at Paula Cooper.
This notion of free will, inspired by the lectures of mathematician John Conway, constitutes the main thread of her most recent research. Conway defended the idea that not only do human beings possess free will, but that this property extends down to the elementary particles of matter [4]. This dizzying hypothesis finds a striking illustration in Auerbach’s art: her glass laces could be interpreted as the expression of the own will of silica molecules.
This speculative dimension reveals the philosophical ambition of her artistic project. Far from being satisfied with visual illustrations of scientific concepts, Auerbach develops a true artistic cosmology that questions our place in the universe. Her works function as thought experiments that reveal the limits of our rational understanding of the world.
The installation “7S, 7Z, 1s, 2Z,” a kinetic sculpture from 2019 composed of twisted steel cables and soapy solution, perfectly illustrates this cosmological ambition. This work continuously produces soap bubbles modeled on the structure of the fascia, the connective tissue that maintains the architecture of our body. The metaphor is striking: just as the fascia connects all the elements of our anatomy, Auerbach’s art reveals the invisible connections that unite all the phenomena of the universe.
This aesthetic of connectivity finds its most accomplished expression in her recent cartographic projects. Using stereographic projection techniques developed by geophysicist Athelstan Spilhaus in the 1940s, she creates maps of the world where Antarctica is at the center while the considerably enlarged American West Coast draws the perimeter of the projection. These works reveal the arbitrariness of our usual geographical representations while proposing alternative visions of our planet.
The unsettling beauty of these projections lies in their ability to make strange representations that we take for granted. This strategy of defamiliarization, dear to Russian formalists, constitutes one of the essential engines of Auerbach’s art. By revealing the arbitrariness of our systems of representation, she invites us to imagine other ways of conceiving the world.
Towards a New Synthesis
The work of Tauba Auerbach fits into the lineage of the great synthesizers of contemporary art, those artists who reject disciplinary specialization to develop cross-disciplinary practices. Her ability to navigate between mathematics and craftsmanship, between high technology and vernacular traditions, testifies to an intellectual ambition that evokes the great polymaths of the Renaissance.
This synthetic dimension explains the unique place she occupies in the contemporary artistic landscape. In an era marked by hyperspecialization and fragmentation of knowledge, Auerbach proposes an alternative model based on universal curiosity and perpetual experimentation. Her artistic practice functions as a form of fundamental research that reveals unsuspected connections between seemingly unrelated fields.
This approach finds a particular resonance in the contemporary context of ecological and social crisis. In the face of climate urgency and growing inequalities, Auerbach’s art offers a holistic vision of the world that transcends traditional divides between nature and culture, between local and global, between individual and collective. Her works function as scaled-down models of a world reconciled with itself.
Her ecological commitment is notably manifested in her personal lifestyle and ethical choices. A convinced vegan, she finances investigations into industrial farming conditions and advocates for awareness of environmental issues related to food. This militant dimension, discreet but real, testifies to the coherence between her artistic convictions and her personal commitments.
Diagonal Press, her independent publishing house, represents the most accomplished expression of this alternative philosophy. By exclusively publishing open and unsigned editions, she deliberately short-circuits the speculative mechanisms of the art market to prioritize the widest possible dissemination of her creations. This anti-commercial approach reveals a conception of art as a common good rather than as a luxury commodity.
The future of her work seems to be heading towards an even more ambitious synthesis of her various research. Her recent exhibition “Tide” at the Fridericianum in Kassel, held from July 2023 to January 2024, bears witness to this evolution. Organized according to a wave/particle duality principle that echoes the paradoxes of quantum physics, this exhibition reveals an artistic maturity that heralds new developments.
The Legacy of a Visionary
Tauba Auerbach’s work stands as one of the most accomplished syntheses of contemporary art. Her ability to transform the most abstract concepts into striking sensory experiences testifies to an exceptional talent that far surpasses purely aesthetic concerns. She literally reinvents the modalities of conceptual art by giving it back a bodily and emotional dimension that previous generations had too often neglected.
Her most lasting contribution may lie in this reconciliation between intellect and sensitivity, between scientific rigor and artistic intuition. In an era where culture fragments into increasingly narrow specializations, Auerbach proposes a model of transversal intelligence that might well prefigure the art of the future.
Her influence is already beginning to be felt on a whole generation of artists who, following her lead, explore the creative possibilities offered by contemporary sciences. But beyond these direct lineages, it is perhaps her very conception of art as a form of fundamental research that will have the deepest impact on the evolution of contemporary creation.
In a world in constant transformation, where traditional certainties collapse one after another, Tauba Auerbach’s art offers a model of complex thought that embraces uncertainty without giving up the quest for meaning. This paradoxical wisdom, which fully accepts the limits of our knowledge while relentlessly pursuing the exploration of reality, may be the most valuable lesson this exceptional artist teaches us.
Her work bears witness to contemporary art’s ability to go beyond sterile aesthetic quarrels to reclaim its primary function: to help us better understand the world we live in and our place in the cosmic vastness. This ambition, both modest and dizzying, makes Tauba Auerbach one of the most essential figures in the art of our time.
- Caroline A. Jones, “Tauba Auerbach: Index and Speculation”, Artforum, September 2021
- Tausif Noor, “In San Francisco, Art That Unspools the Mysteries of the Universe”, The New York Times, January 27, 2022
- Fanny Singer, “Tauba Auerbach’s Architecture of Connectivity”, Frieze, December 2021
- Julia Felsenthal, “Tauba Auerbach’s Work Might (Possibly) Have Its Own Free Will”, The New York Times T Magazine, March 16, 2023
