Sam Krack
During a residency last year at Casino Display in Luxembourg, Sam Krack explored the industrial heritage of his hometown, Dudelange—a place that, from the mid-19th century onward, became a pivotal hub for steel production. Collaborating with Luxembourg’s last active foundry, he produced a cast iron sculpture and, with the help of a filmmaker friend, captured 16mm footage inside the factory.
At Fonderie Darling, Sam Krack intends to deepen this investigation into industrial history. Fascinated by the formal and counter-formal vocabulary of functional objects born in foundries, he aims to study the nuances of production history, tooling techniques, and the intricate use of moulds. His research also extends to the concept of “travail en perruque”, a form of workers’ resistance where individuals repurpose workplace materials and tools during working hours to create objects beyond company directives. Additionally, he continues to explore a time-sensitive approach to painting.
Krack’s practice focuses on the overlooked details of everyday life—the mundane photographs of insurance claims, the classified ads for secondhand items, the domestic spaces cluttered with trivial objects that silently document consumer society.
He contrasts the relentless pace of image (and commodity) circulation in today’s hyper-connected world with the deliberate slowness of artistic creation—whether through oil painting, engraving, earthenware, or marble sculpture—and its capacity to elevate the ordinary to the sacred.
His hyperrealistic depictions of the world, often layered in self-referential compositions, engage in a dialogue with conceptual art, though infused with an irony that sets his work apart. This humour also reveals a tenderness for the absurd yet poignant moments of daily life, which he presents to audiences to provoke reflection on their relationship with reality and its representations.
Biography
Initially, a breeder of racing pigeons on the roof of the Montpellier School of Fine Arts, Sam Krack started painting during the lockdown period. He thereby reconnects with the slowness of action, which structures and fills up time in a dynamic of daily life. His subject of choice becomes the relationship between functional and commercial photography, especially on the internet, and the value system associated with the pictorial medium, going hand in hand with a confrontation between the art world and ordinary capitalism. With sharp irony, the artist seeks incidental reminiscences of the myths and symbols associated with the history of painting in banal images, continually questioning the ambivalences of representation, between depth and flatness.
Recent exhibitions
| 2026 | POST-, group exhibition, Casino Luxembourg, LU Not today, group exhibition, Valerius Gallery, LU |
| 2025 | Un monde fissuré, group exhibition, CACN Nimes, FR Acte de présence, solo exhibition, Casino Display, LU |
| 2024 | SLA, group exhibition, Casa do Comum, Lisboa, PT |
| 2023 | Risco de cueda, group exhibition, 25M, São Paulo, BR |
| 2022 | Peintures barbares, group exhibition, Lieu Commun, Toulouse, FR Trans(m)issions, group exhibition, MOCO Hôtel des Collections, Montpellier, FR |