Max Manning
Max Manning is a Houston area artist who recently moved to Texas, after living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Two Dimensional Studies from Bowling Green State University in 2011 and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati in 2014. Max has exhibited work nationally and internationally and is currently represented by TW Fine Art in Brisbane, Australia. His paintings have been shown in The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati Ohio, Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, The Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas, Espacio 20/20 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Le Practicable Espace D’ Exposition in Rennes, France. His work has been featured in Maake Magaine, Fresh Paint Magazine, and Studio Visit Magazine.
Artist Statement
The artist of today lives in a both cumbersome and liberating realm of infinite resource. Indeed the possibility of originality has long been declared dead. Does that mean the artist shall forfeit their pursuit of creating work that could expand the ever-elastic waistband of art? Or should they stubbornly persist, along the way borrowing and stealing the cloaks of past styles and the shields of isms?
The aim of my work is to be retro-contemporary but not retrograde. That is to say, that, in my own naiveté, I am optimistic to encounter a dead horse along the road and beat it back to life. Once beaten back to life, I may attempt to relate these isms to contemporary human experience. Hopefully, this yields allegorical images that stand upon the timeline of art history with one foot on the past and the other on the present. I approach the history of abstract painting through a cubist lens, exploring paint as object matter and painting as subject matter.
Metaphorically the image plane could be viewed as an immovable object, and though my mind is far from an unstoppable force, it is my hope that when these two meet, the material evidence of this incident will be an image-object of artistic merit. My process is a pendulous alteration between automatism and analysis. The canvas, however comprised, will absorb explosions of raw expression as well as moments of highly controlled focus.
My work is a culmination of stolen ideas, isms, and a great appreciation for the history of painting. Combinations of starkly contrasting visual elements melt together to form images of imperfection. This anarchic visual dialect that I have chosen to adopt speaks to the disorientation one can experience from today’s constant flood of technological over-stimulation.
Bearing in mind the privilege and miracle of this highly developed technological age in which we exist, I am interested in the thinning line between the artificial and the real. The plastic pictures I create are expressions of my own interpretation of the struggle that exists between the visceral, the primal and the artificiality of contemporary human experience.
Artist C.V.
Academic Degrees
2014 Master of Fine Arts, University of Cincinnati (DAAP), Cincinnati, Ohio
2011 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio Selected
Solo Exhibitions
2017 TBD, TW Fine Art, Brisbane, Australia (forthcoming)
2015 In Tongues, EN EM Art Space, Sacramento, California
2014 Now Made with Real Paint, No Future Projects (online),
http://www.nofutureprojects.com/
2014 Soul-Rocket, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Uberplasticist Exhibition #1, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2011 Screening Reality: Erotomania (Paintings and Drawings by Max Manning, Bowen Thompson Student Union, Bowling Green, Ohio
Selected Two-Person and Group Exhibitions
2017 TBD, James May Gallery, St. Algoma, Wisconsin (forthcoming)
2017 TBD, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, California (forthcoming)
2017 Intimates, Skylab Gallery, Columbus Ohio (forthcoming)
2016 Funkytown, Urbano, Berkeley, California
2016 The Big Show 2016, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas
2016 Small Works, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2016 From Here, Fluorescent Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee
2016 Construct, 337 Project Space, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2015 Be, Mist Gallery, mistgallery.com – Online Exhibition
2015 More or Less, Front/ Space, Kansas City, Missouri
2015 Le Cours de Chose, Le Praticable Espace D’Exposition, Rennes, France
2015 At the Sound of The Bell: Break Away, Pear Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2015 Chill, Zen, Funk and Twang, Curating Contemporary – Online Exhibition
2014 Sugar Rush, En Em Art Space, Sacramento, California
2014 New Abstraction: 3 Select, Metropol is Collective, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
2014 Extraordinary Flecks and Things Butting Up, LOHIOH, Cincinnati, Ohio
2014 By The Pleasure of Doing, Espacio 20/20, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2014 divisible: please, actually, introspective, Divisible Project Space, Dayton, Ohio
2014 Business Casual, collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Neon Heater Gallery,
Findlay, Ohio
2014 LUSH, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
2014 Fiction, University of Dayton Galleries, Dayton, Ohio
2013 Fresh Paint Showcase, Media Wall at Commerce Square, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
2013 Pop-Up Art, Niehoff Design Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Members Small Works Exhibition, Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2013 Wintery Mix, Rock Paper Scissors, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Crosspollination, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, 840 Gallery,
Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 SweetySalty SculptureFunk, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Pipeline
Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 All Fall Down, Meyers Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Modern Makers & Fernside Benefit Art Auction, Niehoff Urban Studio, Cincinnati,
Ohio
2013 Renewal, Drift Studios, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin
2013 Paint + Poems by Manning and Swiger, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Yes, We Art Open, Scioto-Morgens Complex, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Overture, LeSo Gallery, Toledo, Ohio
2012 Post Blank-It, 840 Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 For the Love of Paint, Flow Art Space, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2012 Abstract Life, K.A.S Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
2011 Toledo Artomatic 419!, Toledo, Ohio
2011 Bowling Green State University Annual BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Bowling
Green, Ohio
2010 Bowling Green State University Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling
Green, Ohio
2010 BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
2010 Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Black Swamp Arts Festival,
Bowling Green, Ohio
2010 President’s Suite Invitational Exhibition, Bowen Thompson Student Union,
Bowling Green, Ohio
2009 BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
2009 Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Black Swamp Arts Festival,
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bibliography
2016 Maake Magazine Issue 3, Winter 2016
2016 Interview: “Max Manning”, http://www.maakemagazine.com/max-manning
2016 Review: “CABARET DUIMSTRA: CONSTRUCT AT 337 PROJECT SPACE”,
http://art-hack.org/2016/01/07/cabaret-duimstra-construct-at-337-project-space/,
Arthack.org, January 2016
2015 Podcast: Studio Break Podcast, http://StudioBreak.com/max-manning/
2015 Interview: “Mist Gallery Artist Interviews”, http://www.mistgallery.com/bl
og/2015/10/27/interview-with-max-manning
2015 Podcast: Final/ Friday Podcast, http://finalfridaypodcast.com/maxmanning/
2015 Feature: Looking at Painting, http://lookingatpainting.co.uk/uncategorized/max-
manning/
2014 Review: “DECEMBER 2013: MEMBERS’ SMALL WORKS EXHIBITION”,
http://roygbivgallery.org/2014/01/11/december-2013-members-small-works-exhibition/
2013 Fresh Paint Magazine, Issue No. 2, Fall 2013
2012 Studio Visit Magazine, The Open Studios Press, Boston, Massachusetts,
Juror: Jonathan Green, Independent Curator, Former Director of the
Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJ. Winter Edition
2012 Studio Visit Magazine, The Open Studios Press, Boston, Massachusetts
Juror: Trevor Richardson, Director of Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts. Spring Edition
Max Manning is a Houston area artist who recently moved to Texas, after living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Two Dimensional Studies from Bowling Green State University in 2011 and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati in 2014. Max has exhibited work nationally and internationally and is currently represented by TW Fine Art in Brisbane, Australia. His paintings have been shown in The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati Ohio, Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, The Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas, Espacio 20/20 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Le Practicable Espace D’ Exposition in Rennes, France. His work has been featured in Maake Magaine, Fresh Paint Magazine, and Studio Visit Magazine.
Artist Statement
The artist of today lives in a both cumbersome and liberating realm of infinite resource. Indeed the possibility of originality has long been declared dead. Does that mean the artist shall forfeit their pursuit of creating work that could expand the ever-elastic waistband of art? Or should they stubbornly persist, along the way borrowing and stealing the cloaks of past styles and the shields of isms?
The aim of my work is to be retro-contemporary but not retrograde. That is to say, that, in my own naiveté, I am optimistic to encounter a dead horse along the road and beat it back to life. Once beaten back to life, I may attempt to relate these isms to contemporary human experience. Hopefully, this yields allegorical images that stand upon the timeline of art history with one foot on the past and the other on the present. I approach the history of abstract painting through a cubist lens, exploring paint as object matter and painting as subject matter.
Metaphorically the image plane could be viewed as an immovable object, and though my mind is far from an unstoppable force, it is my hope that when these two meet, the material evidence of this incident will be an image-object of artistic merit. My process is a pendulous alteration between automatism and analysis. The canvas, however comprised, will absorb explosions of raw expression as well as moments of highly controlled focus.
My work is a culmination of stolen ideas, isms, and a great appreciation for the history of painting. Combinations of starkly contrasting visual elements melt together to form images of imperfection. This anarchic visual dialect that I have chosen to adopt speaks to the disorientation one can experience from today’s constant flood of technological over-stimulation.
Bearing in mind the privilege and miracle of this highly developed technological age in which we exist, I am interested in the thinning line between the artificial and the real. The plastic pictures I create are expressions of my own interpretation of the struggle that exists between the visceral, the primal and the artificiality of contemporary human experience.
Artist C.V.
Academic Degrees
2014 Master of Fine Arts, University of Cincinnati (DAAP), Cincinnati, Ohio
2011 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio Selected
Solo Exhibitions
2017 TBD, TW Fine Art, Brisbane, Australia (forthcoming)
2015 In Tongues, EN EM Art Space, Sacramento, California
2014 Now Made with Real Paint, No Future Projects (online),
http://www.nofutureprojects.com/
2014 Soul-Rocket, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Uberplasticist Exhibition #1, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2011 Screening Reality: Erotomania (Paintings and Drawings by Max Manning, Bowen Thompson Student Union, Bowling Green, Ohio
Selected Two-Person and Group Exhibitions
2017 TBD, James May Gallery, St. Algoma, Wisconsin (forthcoming)
2017 TBD, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, California (forthcoming)
2017 Intimates, Skylab Gallery, Columbus Ohio (forthcoming)
2016 Funkytown, Urbano, Berkeley, California
2016 The Big Show 2016, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas
2016 Small Works, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2016 From Here, Fluorescent Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee
2016 Construct, 337 Project Space, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2015 Be, Mist Gallery, mistgallery.com – Online Exhibition
2015 More or Less, Front/ Space, Kansas City, Missouri
2015 Le Cours de Chose, Le Praticable Espace D’Exposition, Rennes, France
2015 At the Sound of The Bell: Break Away, Pear Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2015 Chill, Zen, Funk and Twang, Curating Contemporary – Online Exhibition
2014 Sugar Rush, En Em Art Space, Sacramento, California
2014 New Abstraction: 3 Select, Metropol is Collective, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
2014 Extraordinary Flecks and Things Butting Up, LOHIOH, Cincinnati, Ohio
2014 By The Pleasure of Doing, Espacio 20/20, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2014 divisible: please, actually, introspective, Divisible Project Space, Dayton, Ohio
2014 Business Casual, collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Neon Heater Gallery,
Findlay, Ohio
2014 LUSH, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
2014 Fiction, University of Dayton Galleries, Dayton, Ohio
2013 Fresh Paint Showcase, Media Wall at Commerce Square, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
2013 Pop-Up Art, Niehoff Design Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Members Small Works Exhibition, Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2013 Wintery Mix, Rock Paper Scissors, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Crosspollination, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, 840 Gallery,
Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 SweetySalty SculptureFunk, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Pipeline
Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 All Fall Down, Meyers Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013 Modern Makers & Fernside Benefit Art Auction, Niehoff Urban Studio, Cincinnati,
Ohio
2013 Renewal, Drift Studios, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin
2013 Paint + Poems by Manning and Swiger, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Yes, We Art Open, Scioto-Morgens Complex, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Overture, LeSo Gallery, Toledo, Ohio
2012 Post Blank-It, 840 Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 For the Love of Paint, Flow Art Space, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2012 Abstract Life, K.A.S Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
2011 Toledo Artomatic 419!, Toledo, Ohio
2011 Bowling Green State University Annual BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Bowling
Green, Ohio
2010 Bowling Green State University Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling
Green, Ohio
2010 BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
2010 Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Black Swamp Arts Festival,
Bowling Green, Ohio
2010 President’s Suite Invitational Exhibition, Bowen Thompson Student Union,
Bowling Green, Ohio
2009 BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
2009 Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Black Swamp Arts Festival,
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bibliography
2016 Maake Magazine Issue 3, Winter 2016
2016 Interview: “Max Manning”, http://www.maakemagazine.com/max-manning
2016 Review: “CABARET DUIMSTRA: CONSTRUCT AT 337 PROJECT SPACE”,
http://art-hack.org/2016/01/07/cabaret-duimstra-construct-at-337-project-space/,
Arthack.org, January 2016
2015 Podcast: Studio Break Podcast, http://StudioBreak.com/max-manning/
2015 Interview: “Mist Gallery Artist Interviews”, http://www.mistgallery.com/bl
og/2015/10/27/interview-with-max-manning
2015 Podcast: Final/ Friday Podcast, http://finalfridaypodcast.com/maxmanning/
2015 Feature: Looking at Painting, http://lookingatpainting.co.uk/uncategorized/max-
manning/
2014 Review: “DECEMBER 2013: MEMBERS’ SMALL WORKS EXHIBITION”,
http://roygbivgallery.org/2014/01/11/december-2013-members-small-works-exhibition/
2013 Fresh Paint Magazine, Issue No. 2, Fall 2013
2012 Studio Visit Magazine, The Open Studios Press, Boston, Massachusetts,
Juror: Jonathan Green, Independent Curator, Former Director of the
Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJ. Winter Edition
2012 Studio Visit Magazine, The Open Studios Press, Boston, Massachusetts
Juror: Trevor Richardson, Director of Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts. Spring Edition
