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