Max Maslansky

Artist’s Statement

I am a scopophiliac, which commonly refers to the sexual pleasure of looking at erotic objects, images, or scenes. For several years, I have culled thousands of photos off the web, mostly stills from vintage porno films of the 70s and early 80s. Before the advent of home video many of these films were modeled on mainstream cinema tropes.  Generally less violent and more playful, this era seems like Sesame Street compared to contemporary porno production. My paintings currently derive from this image trove, yet are further warped by projections, fantasies, and formal tics of my own. However, my most self-aware mode of production is the formal challenge of ‘activating’ a rectangle. I invest approximations of early 20th century painterly language tropes into ‘impolite’ imagery, allowing the unknown interactions between the ground (used bed sheets) and liquid acrylic paint to undermine my habits. I cannot claim to understand the impetus for my subject matter, only that it serves the libidinal urge behind formal experimentation.

Website: maxmaslansky.info

Biography

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS (2011-2015)

2015
Jouissance, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles
Midnight Blue, Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva, Switzerland

2014
The Edge of Night, Five Car Garage, Los Angeles

2011
Behind the Internet, EmmaGrayHQ, Los Angeles

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS (2012-2015)

2015
Sexxitecture, CULT, San Francisco

2014
Made in L.A. 2014, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, curated by Connie Butler & Michael Ned Holte (cat.)

2013
Made in Space, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York

2012
Two and Half Hands and a Painting, (with Matteo Tannat), Pauline, Los Angeles

RESIDENCIES AND GRANTS

2015
California Community Foundation Grant, Los Angeles

2008
Vermont Studio Center

EDUCATION

2006
MFA California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

1999
BA Fine Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY