Join us for a conversation with artist Nicole Eisenman and curator Mark Godfrey at the Royal Institute to celebrate her monumental new sculpture ‘Stack’ at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Standing over eight meters tall, ‘Stack’ is emblematic of the artist’s expansive approach to sculpture. This totem of figures and objects is a combination of the things that nourish Eisenman’s practice, offering the viewer an abstracted self-portrait comprised of five main forms.

At the bottom, Eisenman depicts a Birkenstock-wearing artist supporting the tremendous weight of an impossibly balanced stack of people and things, which are also reminiscent of ‘The Town Musicians of Bremen,’ a well-known German fairy tale. Poised to lumber forward, the artist’s progress is both implied and undermined, the figure perpetually holding out an empty glass in anticipation of wine. Balanced atop the wine barrel it carries is a potato, symbolizing the food that sustains her, while resting above it is Eisenman’s essential companion and feline muse, Edie, rendered here with an auburn coat of fur that is the result of a carefully distressed patina.

At the top is a model of the artist Phyllida Barlow (1944 – 2023), who sits with a quiet knowing smile and holds a vase of flowers on her head. Barlow is a symbol for the art that nourishes and inspires Eisenman’s own work, particularly her enquiry into sculptural practices.

Please note that this event will take place at the Royal Institute in London, with seats being allocated on a first come, first basis.

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance.

‘Stack’ is on view at the Royal Academy of Arts from 22 September 2026 – 5 February 2027.

About Nicole Eisenman
Artist Nicole Eisenman lives and works in Brooklyn, New York NY. She is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018. Her work was included in both the 2019 Venice Biennale and the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Solo exhibitions include: ‘Fallen Angels’ at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong (2026); ‘with, and, of, on Sculpture’ at Hauser & Wirth Paris, France (2024); ‘What Happened’ at the Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (2023), traveling to Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2023) and MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL (2024); ‘Heads, Kisses, Battles: Nicole Eisenman and the Moderns’ at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany (2021), traveling to Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2022), Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France (2022), and Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Netherlands (2022); ‘Giant Without a Body’ at the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (2021); ‘Sturm und Drang’ at the Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX (2020); and ‘Baden Baden Baden,’ at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany (2019). Having established herself as a painter, Nicole Eisenman has expanded her practice into the third dimension.

About Mark Godfrey
Mark Godfrey is a curator and art historian based in London, UK. From 2007 to 2021 he was Senior Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, London, UK, where he curated and co-curated retrospectives of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Alighiero Boetti, Franz West, and others, as well as the acclaimed exhibition ‘Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power’ (2017). Recent projects include exhibitions of the work of Laura Owens at Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, France; (2021); and Jacqueline Humphries at Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2021 – 2022). Godfrey has published essays on Firelei Báez, Kevin Beasley, Petrit Halilaj, and Faith Ringgold, in addition to two books with Yale University Press, ‘Alighiero e Boetti’ (2013) and ‘Abstraction and the Holocaust’ (2007).

—

Photographs will be taken at this event for use on the Hauser & Wirth, Sadie Coles, Royal Institution and Royal Academy of Arts websites, social media and in other marketing materials.