From Bronze to Epoxy: Reinventing a Career in Color

Martin Eichinger’s transition from bronze sculpture to epoxy resin wasn’t a departure from his past—it was an expansion of it. After decades working in traditional materials, epoxy offered a new way to explore light, movement, and color without abandoning the sculptural thinking that defined his career.

Rather than replacing one medium with another, the shift opened a different set of questions. What happens when form gives way to depth? When surface becomes something you look into instead of around?

For Eichinger, epoxy became a way to keep evolving without starting over.

Martin Eichinger refining a clay sculpture by hand, where precision, patience, and material knowledge shape each decision in the studio.

A Foundation Built in Bronze

Bronze is a material rooted in discipline. It requires patience, planning, and respect for process. Every decision carries weight because revision is costly and often irreversible.

Years of working in bronze shaped Eichinger’s approach to making art. Composition mattered. Structure mattered. So did restraint.

As Eichinger has said, “Working in bronze teaches you to think ahead. Once you commit, you’re committed.”

That mindset didn’t disappear when he began working with epoxy. It carried over—quietly informing how he approached a medium that behaves very differently.

Why Epoxy Opened a New Creative Path

Where bronze is solid and final, epoxy is fluid and responsive. It allows color to move, light to pass through, and depth to form internally.

This shift wasn’t just technical. It was conceptual.

Epoxy introduced time as an active element in the work. Layers could be built gradually. Reactions could unfold. Pieces could change character depending on light and environment.

For an artist used to thinking three-dimensionally, epoxy offered a way to sculpt with transparency instead of mass.

Letting Color Lead Instead of Form

Bronze demands clarity of form. Epoxy invites ambiguity.

Rather than defining edges and contours, Eichinger began working with color as structure. Pigments, mica powders, and light interactions became the primary compositional tools.

This approach required a different kind of trust. Instead of controlling every outcome, the process allowed room for variation and discovery.

“You stop telling the material exactly what to do,” Eichinger has noted. “You listen to what it’s doing and respond.”

The result was work that felt less representational and more experiential—art that revealed itself gradually rather than all at once.

Reinvention Without Abandonment

Reinventing a career doesn’t always mean leaving the past behind. Sometimes it means translating it.

Eichinger’s epoxy work still reflects the sensibilities developed through decades of sculpture: balance, proportion, and attention to material behavior. What changed was the language.

The move from bronze to epoxy wasn’t a rejection of tradition. It was a continuation—adapted to a medium capable of holding light, color, and uncertainty in equal measure.

Why Career Shifts Matter in Art

Material changes often signal deeper shifts in how an artist sees the world.

In Eichinger’s case, epoxy made room for curiosity later in a career rather than closing it off. It created space to experiment, question, and respond to new ideas without losing identity.

That willingness to evolve is visible in the work itself. Each piece reflects both where it came from and where it’s still going.

Reinvention, here, isn’t about novelty. It’s about staying engaged.

Looking Forward Through Color and Process

Epoxy continues to offer Eichinger a platform for exploration. Its responsiveness keeps the work open-ended, resisting repetition and encouraging attention.

Color becomes more than surface. Light becomes part of the composition. Process remains visible.

The transition from bronze to epoxy didn’t simplify the work. It expanded it—layer by layer, decision by decision.