Maya Zack's Counterlight at Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch in Rome

Maya Zack's third solo exhibition in Italy, 'Counterlight,' is on view at Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch in Rome until November 19. The centerpiece is a video that follows a researcher's archival investigation into the life of Romanian Jewish poet Paul Celan, whose work famously changed Theodor Adorno's stance on poetry and the Shoah. The video employs cutting and drawing—manual, embodied gestures—to transform the cold distance of archival documents into concrete, pulsating clarity. The footage evolves naturally into metaphorical and baroque outcomes, evoking comparisons to Hitchcock, Matthew Barney, and William Kentridge. The crescendo of operatic music is masterfully used. Additional works include illustrative drawings and a sculpture: a mute book, opened wide like an accordion or a lung.