Artist Statement
For the past two years, I have been experimenting with varying degrees of proximity as a parameter for making photographs and collages. Pushing the proximity of an image closer to its original locale is a way to dissolve the gap between a physical subject and verisimilitude. In this way, heightened proximity speaks to a culture of hyper-connectivity and constant accessibility that grows out of a broader proliferation of images.
[Images 1-4]
For this series, I built each collage from photographs collected along one street—Meserole Street—in Brooklyn near to where I once lived. I walked the entire stretch of this street—ten blocks— and photographed the vernacular architectural details that define this street. The site of the collage acts as a place where images from buildings intersect in close proximity to each other. The compression and density of urban space gives form to a visual compression—reflecting a condition where urbanism is increasingly defined by the experience of moving through digital networks of information and images rather than walking through streets and past buildings.
[Images 5-14]
This group of works was made for the project space at Longhouse Projects in lower Manhattan. In this instance, I used the proximity of the photographs to the site of the gallery as a parameter. I took multiple walks within a few block radius of the gallery and photographed details from the surrounding neighborhood. Here, the entire installation is a compression of moments from the vicinity around the exhibition site, creating the possibility that a viewer might have just encountered any of the building facade details in-person.
[Images 15-16]
These two collages were made using photographs taken along one block in Brooklyn—Starr Street. Every building on this block has the same lozenge ornamentation, but each building has a unique treatment or has worn down differently. I photographed the same detail on every building and used the photographs as the material to make the collages. These pieces emphasize the phenomenon of walking past a building or group of buildings as fragments of the surrounding imagery dissipate into the periphery, creating spatial glitches and temporal leaps akin to montage and experimental film.
CV
B. 1980, Lives and works in New York City
Education
2004 M.F.A. in Studio Art, University of Illinois at Chicago
2002 B.A. Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
2001 Middlebury College School in Russia—Irkutsk, Russia
Exhibitions
2015
The Shared Patio, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Hot and Cold, Laurence Miller Gallery, NY
Approximately Spring, Longhouse Projects, New York, NY (project space)
Nothing Ever Happened, Chapter 61, New York, NY
2014
Coup de Foudre, Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY
Sunscreen, Graham, New York, NY
Chancing with the Stars, Cuevas Tilleard Projects, New York
Strata, Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, New York
The Daily Life of Immobile Things, Gridspace, Brooklyn, NY
Regina Rex: New Threads, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, GA
2013
Place to Place to Place, Planthouse, New York
Digital Dye Hard, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Queens, New York
All-Over or Nothing, Parallel, Queens, New York
Peripheral Prose, Longhouse Projects, New York
Max Warsh: BILDER, toomer labzda, New York (gallery now closed)
2012
Swamp, Poe Park Visitor Center, New York, curated by Kari Adelaide
Shaun Flynn, David Ostrowski, Max Warsh, Shoot the Lobster, New York
Regina Rex: Part One, Eli Ping, New York
Max Warsh and Vanesa Zendejas, SOFA, Austin, TX
2011
CHILDERS/WARSH, New Capital, Chicago, IL
Remnants, Werkhaus, Brooklyn, NY
2009
ANCIENT, C.R.E.A.M. Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2008
I AM I A KILLER, Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007
Jean Robison and Max Warsh, Me and You Variety Candy, Los Angeles, CA
Night Light, Slab Projects, Glendale, CA
The Pyramid Show, Monte Vista, Los Angeles, CA
2004
Formfit: State Style, Great Space, University of Illinois at Chicago
M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition, Gallery 400, Chicago, Il
2003
Video: I Like, Sonnenchein Gallery, Lake Forest, Il
Formfit, Great Space, University of Illinois at Chicago
2002
New Photographs, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Curatorial
2010-present
Co-founder and directo of the artist-run gallery Regina Rex, New York, NY
Bibliography
– Griffin, Nora, “Peripheral Prose,” artcritical.com, August, 2013.
– Colucci, Emily, “Max Warsh Turns Urban Architecture Into Abstraction at Toomer Labzda,” Societe Perrier, February 2, 2013
– Schlesinger, Kyle, “Putting Things Together,” …might be good, issue #191, June 2012.
– Biel, Kim, “I AM I A KILLER at Sam Lee Gallery,” Artweek v. 39, issue 8, October 2008.
Writing
-“Siebren Versteeg: On Good Behavior” cat. entry for New. New York. Vienna: Essl Museum, 2012
-“Lewis Baltz” and “Hiroshi Sugimoto” entries for This Is Not to Be Looked At: Highlights from the Permanent Collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008.