Max Presneill

Max Presneill is an artist and curator. His paintings are represented by Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills and Durden and Ray Fine Art, Los Angeles. He has exhibited at museums, institutes and galleries in London, New York, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Mexico City, Sydney, Istanbul, Paris, as well as numerous projects throughout the US.
He is currently the Head Curator at the Torrance Art Museum and Director of ARTRA Curatorial and was the Founder and former Director of Raid Projects in Los Angeles (1998-2008) and from 2005-8 he was the Director/Curator for the Mark Moore Gallery.

Artistic Statement

Utilizing source images from the internet, photographs from my own life, art historical references and intuitive decisions when painting, I hope to reflect upon the relationship between fact and fiction in relation to our experience. Within reconstructed histories and mythologized experiences, my own and cultural ones, the forged connections that play between remembering and invention act as considerations of the nature of reality and identity.

The narrative elements allude to situations, both specific and general, factual and imagined, in a form of visual existentialism that places the importance of the act of painting within a set of self-affirmed constructions of reality and value, the choices made being the literal illustration of Being as ‘decision making’.

Isolated, de-contextualized or reconfigured, the source materials float in a sea of uncertainty, like our own reflection in a mirror, somewhat familiar but not quite our ‘self’, what is seen differing from what is felt, hermetic experience and shared cultural expressions constantly oscillating between understanding and illegibility.

In the end they are the remnants and evidence of the cognitive, problem-solving nature of painting and the human experience, or at least mine…

Exhibition Resume

2011

Art Platform LA, art fair, with Garboushian Gallery, LA Mart, CA

Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA

CO/LAB at LA Mart, with Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, CA

Film:Shorts, Mark Moore Gallery (with a D&R video project), Culver City, CA

2009

Last of the Summer Wine, Durden and Ray Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA (solo)

Here And Now, ARTRA, Los Angeles, CA

Rant, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA

Manifestation, Carl Berg Projects, Los Angeles, CA

RPLA, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA

On The Shoulders of Davids, JAUS, Los Angeles, CA

Psychic Hearts, La Verne University Gallery, La Verne, CA

PS 1999 – 2009, Kunstruimte09, Groningen, Netherlands

Tupajumi, Hudson Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Gunshow, Space B, New York City

Doin’ It, Kruglak Gallery, Mira Costa, CA

2008

“um…My, gallery”, The Brewery Arts Complex, Los Angeles, CA

From Similar Origins to Remarkable Visions, Main Art Gallery, CSUF, Fullerton, CA

Plush, Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, CA

2007

Wish List, Freight & Volume, New York City (solo)

ANFSCD, La Estacion Arte Contemporaneo, Chihuahua, Mexico (solo)

artLA Art Fair, Los Angeles, with Raid FC

2006

Sex Sells, Red House Gallery, Venice Beach, CA (as part of artLA)

2005

Quickening, MOCA, Tuscon, AZ

Just Visiting, Huntington Beach Art Center

artLA. The LA art fair, LA, with Raid Projects

A Warlike People, M Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona, curated by Lara Taubman

Register The Distance, Borusan Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, curated by Beral Madra (curator of Istanbul Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2005 and 2 previous Istanbul Biennials)

2004

The Armory Show, New York

LA Driveby Part 2, MOP Gallery, Sydney, Australia

LA Driveby Part 1, Kyubidou Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Network, De Parel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Nexus 1 by nTOPIA, Art and Idea, Mexico City

PLA, Raid Projects, Los Angeles

2003

Turschlusspanik, Kontainer Gallery, LA (solo)

Midas, POST, Los Angeles

Raid In Chicago, Standard Gallery, Chicago

Scope Art Fair, Standard Hotel, Los Angeles

Tinsel Town, Domestic Setting, Los Angeles

Images of Desire 2, Winston Hotel, Amsterdam

Fragment, PS Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Miniatures, Kyubidou Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (catalog)

The Stray Show Art Fair, Chicago

GAP, SCA Gallery, Pomona, CA (solo)

2002

Curatorial Market, Cuchifritos Gallery, New York (catalog)
Images Of Desire, Fields Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cross Currents, Deutsch Bank, London, UK
Dreamcatcher, RA Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine
The Stray Show Art Fair, Chicago
Glamour Trip So Soon To Slip, Sheehan Gallery, WA (catalog)
Animal Instinct, Cerritos College Gallery, CA
GIANT, Three Mills Studio, London, UK

2001

Travails, West Gallery, Fullerton, CA (solo)
100% Rag, POST, LA
Ever Since Icarus, Lord Mori Gallery, Chinatown, LA (catalog)
New Video, Gallery Hana, Austin, TX
For Example, Acuna Hansen Gallery, Chinatown, LA
Rising Tide, O.C. Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA (catalog)
Su-Su-Superego, San Bernadino College Gallery, CA
Sound And Vision, Program 12, LA

2000

Logocentricity, Cypress College Gallery, CA (solo)
Phase 3, EGCA Gallery, Santa Ana, CA
Wall Space, Miller Durazo Gallery, LA
10 Degrees Of Abstraction, Biola University Gallery, LA
Strangeland, Andrew Shire Gallery, LA
Intraconnections, Don O’Melveny Gallery, LA

1999

Desire, Eye Five Gallery, LA (catalog)
Strange Bedfellows, Webster Gallery, Santa Ana, CA (solo)
Simon Rondelet International Video Art Show, The Bullet Museum, New York
Land Of Extreme Happiness, SMAC Truck Show, LA (catalog)

1998

10th Annual Juried Show, Irvine Fine Arts Center, CA
IV, EGCA Gallery, Santa Ana, CA

1997

BLOC, Workstation Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Contemporary Diversions, Clocktower Gallery, Sheffield, UK

1996

Spellbound, Octagon Center, Sheffield, UK (solo)
SCAT, The Mappin Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Stockport Open, Stockport City Art Gallery, UK

1995

Derby Open, Derby City Art Gallery, UK
Scattered, Doncaster City Art Gallery, UK

1994

Morbid Symptoms, Leeds Metro University Gallery, UK
Pullit 8, Pullit Gallery, London, UK
Brute Farce, Yorkshire Art Space, Sheffield, UK
Climate, Cool Tan Gallery, London, UK