BIRTHPLACE:   England LIVES IN:   Los Angeles, CA

WORKS IN:   Los Angeles, CA WEBSITE:   http://www.raidprojects.com

Max Presneill is the Founder and Director of Raid Projects and is also the current Director of the Mark Moore Gallery in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica. He has extensive international curatorial experience, having organized exhibitions for museums, institutes and galleries in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Mexico City, Sydney, Istanbul, Paris, as well as numerous projects in New York and throughout the US. He has worked as an art critic and was previously Professor of Fine Art at several universities in the UK and the US, teaching on various Master of Fine Arts courses. He holds 4 art degrees (3 of which are advanced degrees), and is an active artist showing internationally, most recently at Freight & Volume, New York. He has also sat on the Selection Committees for NOVA Young Art Fair (Chicago), PULSE Art Fair (New York/Miami/London), the PILOT program and publication (London), and for the McColl Center's Artist-in-Residence Program, North Carolina amongst others. He has lived in downtown Los Angeles since 2001.

www.raidprojects.com

 www.markmooregallery.com

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Chronology of Raid Projects

In 1997,  Max Presneill moved to California from the UK and began holding one-night-only exhibitions in empty store fronts. An artist and occasional curator he continued his exhibiting career while increasingly working on curatorial projects.

•1998        Max forms Raid Projects with first show officially under that name - ‘Strange Bedfellows'

•1999        Organizes Spurgeon Experience I (with Mike McGee) and Spurgeon Experience II (with Carl Berg) in Santa Ana, CA - short run exhibitions in an empty building with solo shows of 106 and 114 artists opening simultaneously - one artist per room. Some artists fly in from Europe to participate.

•2000        Raid Projects moves to first permanent space in white-cube space in Santa Ana in ex-gallery (Ed Giardina Contemporary Art, when that space closes). Six teams of 4 artists each are formed to curate a show each every 6 months. Max Presneill heads one team and begins curating in alternate spaces under RP name to expand RP activities.

•2001        Raid Projects moves to current location at the Brewery in Los Angeles. Curatorial duties are taken over by Max Presneill again.

•2002        Introduction of Artist In Residence program to supplement regular monthly program. RP produces a catalog every month to support each show (12 per year). We begin curating shows internationally for other spaces and institutions. Primary focus of gallery is upon curatorial strategies and approaches.

•2003        Program increasingly focuses on bringing international art to LA. Marvella Muro joins staff.

•2004        Janet Owen and Sydney Croskery join the staff of Raid Projects.  The AIR program expanded to 2 artists.  External shows curated by Max Presneill expanded and eventually go to Tokyo, Amsterdam, Scottsdale, Mexico City, Sydney, London, Chicago and other cities, including participation in art fairs (including Stray Show, Chicago and The Armory Show, New York - eventually includes artLA, Los Angeles and Paris art fair). Max forms nTOPIA Installation group who complete projects in Mexico City, LA and Istanbul.

•2005        RP begins to focus part of program on young artists and new grads from LA area to balance international program. Max becomes Director at Mark Moore Gallery in addition to RP. Colton Stenke joins staff.

•2006        Focus shifts to smaller group shows.

•2007        First ever solo shows are introduced to years program. Guest Curators invited to present shows for first time regularly.

•2008        Raid Projects closes in May but continues with AIR program and studio based research.

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The following lists some of the artists that Max Presneill worked with from 1998-2008, both at Raid Projects and in other venues.

Rev Ethan Acres (US), Saadane Afif (FR) (2007 Documenta) , Edgar Arceneaux (US) (2008 Whitney Biennial), Skip Arnold (US), Fernanda Brunet (MX), Jane Callister (UK), Gordon Cheung (UK), Delphine Coindet (FR), Greg Colson (US), Meg Cranston (US) (Venice Biennale), Martin Creed (UK), Steve Criqui (US), Critical Art Ensemble (US), Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden) (Venice Biennale), Martin Durazo (US), Emilio Fantin (I) (Venice Biennale), Carlee Fernandez (US), Monique van Genderen (US), Shaun Gladwell (AUS) (Venice Biennale), Graham Hudson (UK), Per Huttner (SW), Icelandic Love Corporation, Martin Kersels (US), Krijn de Koning (NL), Peter Lamb (UK), Joep van Liefland (NL), Claudia Losi (IT) (Venice Biennale), Liza Lou (US), Marcos Lutyens (UK) (Venice Biennale), Marta Marce (SP), Sabrina Mezzaqui (I), Paul Morrison (UK), Ruben Ochoa (US) (2008 Whitney Biennial), Jonas Ohlsson (SW), Yoshua Okon (MX), Ruben Ortiz-Torres (MX), Jared Pankin (US), Cesare Pietroiusti (IT), Jan van der Ploeg (NL), Katie Pratt (UK), George Raggett (US), Boo Ritson (UK), Steve Roden (US), Danny Rolph (UK), Daniela Rossel (MX), Kim Rugg (UK), Kerry Skarbakka (US), Brad Spence (US), Thaddeus Strode (US), Joel Tauber (US), Shirley Tse (US), Gillian Wearing (UK) (Turner Prize), Pae White (US) (Venice Biennale), Simon Willems (UK), Mario Ybarra (US) (2008 Whitney Biennial).

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