Max Presneill is a Los Angeles based artist and curator, originally from London, UK.

[caption id="attachment_14528" align="alignleft" width="500"] Redact 024, 2014. Limited Edition Print by Max Presneill[/caption]

As an artist he has shown throughout the world including New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Istanbul, Sydney, Guangzhou and Tokyo and is represented by the Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills and Gallery Lara in Tokyo as well as the Durden & Ray collective. His work has been included in the Istanbul Biennial and the Yokohama Triennial as well as recently at the UCITY Art Museum in Guangzhou, Campbell Works in London, Gallery Lara, Tokyo, and Norte Maar in New York. He has upcoming shows in 2015 including the Freies Museum in Berlin, Hilger Contemporary in Vienna, Espace des Arts Sans Frontieres, Paris and others. His paintings deal with memory, identity, existential states and the possibility of political action through painting. 

Currently he is the Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum as well as Curatorial Director of ARTRA Curatorial, an independent curatorial projects management team who organize international exhibition exchanges as well as the MAS ATTACK series of pop-up exhibitions. He has extensive experience internationally as a curator having organized exhibitions for museums, institutes and galleries in the US and UK, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Mexico, China, Turkey, Australia, and more. His curatorial interests are with artist led projects, emerging art, new models for curatorial methodologies and an international scope for partnerships and exchanges.

The core ideas in Presneill's practice have always revolved around notions of mortality, the mark as presence and the decisions and choices in painting that imply a type of existentialism. Max is concerned with issues to do with the nature of free will and choice and how invested beliefs in our lives allow us fulfillment – as the act of painting, a process of self-defined questions and answers within a larger language system, is inherently. The paintings concentrate on this act as both a literal thing – the making of a mark of presence, as well as a metaphor for the philosophical position.

Another important thread is the possibility of a political awareness engaging the viewer through the process of abstraction. The key word for Presneill over the last year has been REDACTED or our current relationship to government, corporate structures, et al, is at present. The zeitgeist of our recent times seems to reflect that distrust. Presneill's hope is that the constant applying of marks and their negation through further marks can act as a reflection of the struggles against Power and the constant battle for supremacy between the People and the interests of Authority.

Visit Max Presneill's PORTFOLIO to see the current selection of limited edition prints.

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We are thrilled to be opening the Chris Trueman exhibition A L C H E M Y next Thursday October 23rd at the TWFineArt Gallery. Chris was just today declared one of the top 8 LA artists to watch by Fabrik Contemporary Art & Design Magazine. Trueman's fresh approach to painting lifts and pulls from art history, creating hybridized splices that fuse the history of painting together to create compositions that push the medium into the 21st Century.

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In line with our mission to make great art more accessible, we are taking you inside the studios of our artists - featuring one artist per month in this special behind the scenes look into their practice. A huge part of our mission is to demystify the art world by making it more transparent and inviting. While a work of art might appeal to you on an aesthetic level, that appreciation can be deepened with an understanding of the artist and their process. We want you to have a connection to your favorite work and the artist that created it. This month we are featuring the studio of artist, writer and academic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe. To read a great interview with the artist, check out BOMB Magazine by David Shapiro. [caption id="attachment_11904" align="alignleft" width="750" class=" "] Works in progress in the studio of Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe[/caption] Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe’s (b.1945) paintings challenge contemporary ideas of aesthetics and purpose in art from within the art world itself. He was awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in painting and criticism as well as a Guggenheim fellowship in painting, and was presented the 1998 Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism by the College Art Association. His visual work is included in prestigious public collections, including the Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL. [caption id="attachment_11905" align="alignleft" width="711" class=" "] Racks that house the finished work of the artist[/caption] [caption id="attachment_11910" align="alignleft" width="716"] The artists paint selection laid out[/caption]  

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It is quite a big month of exhibitions for some of TWFineArt's artists, with Max Greis, Emily Silver and Margarita Dittborn Valle all having exhibitions opening this month. To learn more about these exhibitions follow the links below and visit their page at TWFINEART.COM to see the artists work in limited edition print! MAX GREIS - The Garage Door Video Series at BRIC Contemporary Art.

"The Garage Door Video Series, Between Now and Then, is a look at landscapes in the process of change. Whether material or ethereal, these videos explore cycles of decay and rebirth. Artists in this series locate changes within broad thematic spectrums that range from the natural environment to human history. While some address visions of progress, others comment on acts of deliberate destruction. Most of the videos apply a specific technique of cut-out collage animation, which super-imposes moving images upon two-dimensional planes. This technique helps achieve unexpected optical delights, which, at times resemble moving paintings. Through the visual juxtaposition of stillness and movement, the marks of transformation over time become apparent." Exhibition curated by: Shireen Abrishamian and Banyi Huang

 

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EMILY SILVER - Savage Mentality at Cerritos College Art Gallery.

"Savage Sentimentality presents a group show of artists of unique backgrounds and interests connected by a tenuous relationship to sentiment. The artists included allude to and/or embrace sentiment while simultaneously ravaging it, either with a brutish material response or vice versa - a subject matter that contradicts the sensitivity of material handling." Guest curated by Steven Hampton.

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MARGARITA DITTBORN VALLE - Retrospective at Parque Arauco 

"Like the artists of yesteryear, Margarita Dittborn Valle's (Born: 1981 ) pure ambition is to create a sublime visual experience.... We love the subtle nostalgic and fanciful themes ever-present in the work of this photographer and winner of a transcendent self-taught artist in the national and international space."

[caption id="attachment_8959" align="alignleft" width="700"] Santa Lucía, 2006. Print by Margarita Dittborn Valle[/caption]

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Elise Lee's signature graphic pop style draws inspiration from minimalism and Asian Pop Art to create an exciting, uplifting & clean cut visual experience. Playing with the iconography of donuts, love hearts and sausage tubes, Lee's work is quirky and fun - perfect for a space that needs a little life. Lee earned her post graduate degree in Fine Art from the renowned Pratt Institute in New York City before moving to Los Angeles where she currently lives and works. She exhibits across the United States and in Korea and has been published in Art Buzz, Art Slant and Studio Visit Magazine. TWFineArt is Lee's exclusive dealer in Australia and we are thrilled to introduce her to our portfolio of limited edition prints. Elise's range of prints can be sized from SMALL: 400 mm x 500mm to XL 800mm x 1000mm and look fantastic set against a minimal backdrop or room design. Visit our SHOP to view Elise's full series of available work. We will print, frame, pack and ship the work directly to your door, or you can pick it up in the TWFineArt Gallery & GuideShop on James Street in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.  

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