Los Angeles 2008 - Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone and then getting a song in your head? That's what happened when I sat down with Max Presneill of Raid Projects. The song? "He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease..." Know it?

ArtSlant met up with Max at Raid Projects in the Brewery Art Colony near downtown Los Angeles. It was late afternoon, Valentine's Day, and Max had just announced the closing of Raid's exhibition program in May 2008. He was forthcoming and excited about the changes taking place.

Presneill does seem to enjoy teetering above, so to speak. Exuberant, driven, running on big ideas and a scrappy will to survive, this artist/curator/gallerist has cut a swath through the art world. He arrived in Los Angeles from England about 10 years ago with some paintings by friends under his arm and a desire to show art. From those beginnings, Max has gone on to run an experimental, non-commerical gallery for many years, as well as organize and curate art events throughout the world. Certainly Presneill has had his share of thrills and spills, and certainly pulling things together on a shoestring budget and the kindness of friends can be a challenging path, but despite the odds Max continues to find ways to do what he seems born to do: bring art to the people.

The following are some of the topics that Max hit upon during our visit.

ArtSlant: Max - you've worked with so many artists both here and abroad. How would you describe the art scene in LA? What's unique about the art, galleries and artists in LA? What other cities have you found interesting to curate and exhibit within?

Max Presneill: The LA scene is in a period of transition from one in which many artists also curated and organized shows and events to a more commercial scene. Previously, it was necessary for artists to become involved in curating and producing exhibitions because the range and number of available gallery spaces was small. The current trend is the product of a booming art market that has allowed the proliferation of commercial galleries, the art fairs which can lead to quick success for both gallery and artist, and the art schools becoming increasingly professionalized and geared towards inserting their students immediately into the gallery environment (as their success at doing this leads to higher application rates from prospective students).

The art produced in this city is rarely unique - the art scenes in all the major cities worldwide are familiar to each other and influenced by developments elsewhere. However, there are trends here which are perhaps indicative of LA - large scale work, brighter color, a new-found leaning towards the looser craft element (as opposed to the LA art of previous generations which was often slick and candy-coated).

I think the gallery scene in Los Angeles is basically quite relaxed and non-competitive. As a gallerist you have what you have and collectors respond or they don't. Most gallerists I know are helpful and approachable (at least to fellow gallerists :-)) and Raid Projects would have had a much harder time of it without their allowing their artists to show with us. I would like to think that some of them even found the occasional artist they represent through us.

As far as other cities go - Berlin is the European LA - young, exciting, plenty of space. Unlike Los Angeles, it has yet to develop quite as close ties between artists and galleries, although the city is booming with new spaces opening up all the time. It feels a bit like the Los Angeles of a few years ago - but with less money. They also have more funding available through government grants which may help support the continuing development of non-profit spaces and events, unlike Los Angeles! Many other cities also have strong cultural ties to this kind of activity - Amsterdam, London, many cities in Europe. Canada is good for funding as is France (or was - we will see where the political situation takes this in the future...).

I believe that London and New York are where the power and money is; LA and Berlin are where the best art is. Of course, these are gross generalizations that we all recognize, but as a general statement I will stand by it.

AS: In looking back over your involvement with Raid Projects, what were your biggest challenges? Greatest successes? What would you have done differently?

MP: The biggest challenge by far was financial. Everyone who worked with RP, myself included, did so as a volunteer. Trying to raise enough money to pay rent, let alone electricity and other bills, was a struggle for most of us. Because there are so many talented artists out there and not enough spaces to show them or enough people willing to take risks and allow for the possibility of failure, finding artists worth showing was never the problem. The only real problem with showing so many artists from other countries was dealing with shipping companies, which can be profoundly frustrating! In general I found the vast majority of artists I worked with to be engaging, intelligent and nice people. So that old cliche about difficult personalities was only rarely a problem.

As far as successes go, I think our biggest success was being the first to show so many who have gone on to bigger things and being the first to show some already successful artists from various points around the globe who were unknown here in LA. I am also really proud that we took risks and tried to find new ways of thinking about what curating is and could be. We were always willing to see something interesting happen even when we knew there was a high probability of failure - but if it was a glorious enough attempt, our impulse was to go for it and see. Most artists came away with a really positive experience and I have made many, many friends worldwide through doing the shows, for which I am really grateful.

I like to think that for the last 10 years, Raid was the number one place in LA to see new art from abroad. Many galleries have an artist or two from another country on their roster, but no one in LA had such a wide and consistent program dedicated to exposing the LA audience to what was going on in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, etc. that Raid had.

I don't go in for thinking about what I might have done differently - what's done is done. I can rectify some mistakes and not others. We are all here, now, regardless of the past and can only act now or plan for the future. Regrets are not very useful. Ha, ha - As Frank said;

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

AS: What makes a good curator?

MP: Who knows? My guess is the ability to be open to new things, to trust that little voice shouting in your ear when an art work is causing you discomfort. Someone who will take chances. A person who does the hard leg-work of going to a huge amount of exhibitions and studios to see what is out there - not just the museum shows but the little student-organized show in an empty storefront, the backwoods gallery opening, etc. Being conscientious about looking at EVERY submission, because you never know...

When I see something interesting I think, "I want to show it." When it is better than that, I think "I wish to have it, to own it." When it is brilliant: "I wish I had made it!" That is how I view the stuff I go see. I think it is VERY important to be able to distinguish one's personal preferences from one's critical eye and make selection decisions based on the intelligence, the internal logic and the uniqueness of any art on its own merits.

AS: What's your motivation in creating and continuing the AIR (artist in residency) program?

MP: I get to meet loads of interesting artists, hang with them for awhile and see new things continuously. It's an engagement with art and artists worldwide that I want to keep.

AS: You're closing down the Raid exhibition space in a few months. What's up for the future?

MP: I do not want to do the monthly shows anymore. I need to redirect my attention towards my own practice and towards curating shows with larger lead times, bigger budgets and at somebody else's crib :-) If you consider that Raid had a new opening every month, mostly with 3 separate shows (one in each of the spaces) for the last 10 years, excluding external shows we curated for other spaces, then we are talking about 350 exhibitions over that time - well over a thousand artists. I think we contributed something to LA's art scene but we have paid our dues and it is time to find new challenges and perhaps even act a little selfishly in doing some things for ourselves, each of us who have worked here.

AS: How about a few personal questions? Your music? Favorite reads?

MP: Too much to list musically and it changes regularly. As far as reading; The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Companion to the Mind (FANTASTIC!!), comic books, the Dune series by Frank Herbert, Ludlum spy stories, Wikipedia, New Scientist magazine, art magazines - just about everything!

AS: Life philosophy - what keeps you going? What are you trying to do in this life?

MP: Do things that are interesting. If an activity is engaging enough you will work hard at it, go the extra mile. That is always worth it, and personally satisfying. Other people appreciate it too. I truly find great joy in learning, finding out new things, discovering, etc. and art is a wonderful avenue for that. What am I trying to do...? mmm ... contribute..... and keep myself occupied and engaged until Death manages to find where I have been hiding!

- ArtSlant Co-Founder, Georgia Fee