Viewing Room

Shedding new light on the wide breadth of Max Colby’s practice, this viewing room showcases six bodies of work by Colby produced between 2018 and 2023. Featured are selections from Shrouds, Elegies, They Consume Each Other, Pretend That You Love Me -, Paintings from 2023, and Drawings from 2021 & 2023. New writing on each series is featured, expanding upon language developed for independent bodies of work, their interconnectedness, and an overall view of Colby’s practice. In addition, reflections on exhibition and press history relative to individual works provide further insight.

All inquiries please contact studio@maxcolby.com.


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Shrouds

Max Colby’s recent body of sculptures, Shrouds, explores celebration and commemoration; death and love; materiality and abstraction. The title, Shroud, contains multiplicities. As an expansion of Colby’s interest in ritual, mourning, and commemorative aesthetics, Shroud (reinforced by the scale of works) references a burial wrapping. In its active interpretation, Shroud indicates the ability to cloak, obscure, and remain opaque. What culminates in Colby’s work are transfigurations of both meanings towards abstract portals, gateways, and unknown objects, allowing for expansive possibilities past known categorical approaches to the body and a desire for rites to solidify them.

Shrouds is comprised of seven large-scale sculptures and six studies produced in 2022. Studies from the series have been exhibited at Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022), and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2023). Their presence in these exhibitions has been reviewed by ArtForum, Frieze, STIRWorld, and Art and Cake.

Shroud #10
2022, Found ‘Crazy’ quilt ca. 1890, trim, fabric flowers, streamers, banners, garland, metal chain, toys, ribbon, costume jewelry, buttons, plastic flowers and fauna, beads, sequins, thread, fabric, Douglas fir
108 x 76 x 26”

Shroud #6 (study)
2022, Found ‘Crazy’ quilt ca. 1900, trim, fabric flowers, garland, dolls, costume jewelry, buttons, plastic flowers and fauna, beads, sequins, thread, fabric, pine
27 x 28 x 5”

Shroud #11
2022, Found ‘Crazy’ quilt ca. 1898, trim, fabric flowers, streamers, banners, garland, metal chain, toys, ribbon, plastic jewelry, buttons, plastic flowers and fauna, beads, thread, fabric, Douglas fir
120 x 90 x 24”

Elegies

Max Colby’s Elegies are fantastical portraits of a cultural relationship to death and memorial. By subverting symbolism of commercial funeral wreaths, Colby engenders dialogues on value, merit, and commemoration through an exploration of aesthetics. Utilizing contemporary American materials found globally, Colby provides rearrangements of ceremony and ritual which are at once fantastical and mundane. Each work becomes a portrait belonging to no one, transfigured beyond the object of funereal wreaths and towards unknown, non-places and reflections.

Elegies is comprised of 18 sculptures produced between 2019 and 2020. Select works from the series have been exhibited at Aicon Gallery, New York, NY (2022), Sugar Hill Children’s Museum, New York, NY (2022), the Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York, NY (2021), and SPRING/BREAK, New York, NY (2020).

Elegy #4
2019, Crystal and plastic beads, sequin patches, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ostrich feathers, polyester batting, plywood, thread, 44 x 44 x 5”

Elegy #5
2019, Crystal and plastic beads, sequin patches, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, magnets, ostrich feathers, polyester batting, composite board, thread, 38 x 25 x 5”

Elegy #12
2019, Crystal and plastic beads, sequin patches, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, feathers, polyester batting, MDF, thread
25 x 20 x 5”

They Consume Each Other

They Consume Each Other is one of Colby’s most recognizable works – a fantastical, large-scale installation of 42 sculptures created between 2018 and 2021. Below are individual sculptures from the series which standalone from their installation counterpart. They Consume Each Other bears reference to altars, vigils, and ceremonial assembly. From the base of each sculpture (invoking rituals such as the bearing of rings at a wedding or a coronation crown ready to be used), a form arises with phallic undertones, erect and oversaturated with floral reproductions, beading, and found materials, stirring feelings of comfort, ignorance, and bliss. Through material, she parodies colonial and imperial American aesthetics, a framework she subverts through humor and assemblages of excess.

They Consume Each Other is comprised of 50 individual sculptures and three installations created between 2018 and 2022. Individual and installation iterations are held in dozens of private collections and have been exhibited at the Des Moines Art Center,  Des Moines, IA (2023), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE (2023), Rockefeller Center presented by Art Production Fund, New York, NY (2022), Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022), Sugar Hill Museum of Children’s Art, New York, NY (2021), Wave Hill, New York, NY (2019), and more. Works from the series have been reviewed by Artsy, Interior Design Magazine, Surface Design Journal, STIRWorld, Widewalls, and more.

Clear Headed
2018, Crystal flat backs, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, polyester batting, thread
16.5 x 15 x 15”

Vertigo
2019, Crystal and plastic beads, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, polyester batting, thread, glass stand
14 x 10 x 10”

Untitled
2022, Crystal and plastic beads and sequins, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, costume jewelry, polyester batting, thread
10 x 8 x 8”

Untitled
2022, Crystal and plastic beads and sequins, found fabric, trim, fabric flowers, ribbon, polyester batting, thread
10 x 11 x 9”

Butter
2019, Crystal and plastic beads, found fabric, trim, fabric flower, polyester batting, thread
16 x 11 x 11”

Untitled
2022, Plastic beads, found fabric, trim, charms, fabric and plastic flowers, polyester batting, thread
12.5 x 8.5 x 8.5”

Pretend That You Love Me –

Max Colby’s recent series of collages, Pretend That You Love Me –, shifts her ongoing focus on topics of memorial, commemoration, and death, towards love. In exploring symbols, aesthetics, and the language of love produced in mainstream culture as fragile pleas, the artist parodies them. Referencing the 1996 hit ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans in the series title, Pretend That You Love Me – questions notions of artifice in social creations of “love” through the banal and mundane channels of pop culture. Comprised of valentine’s day cards from the mid-20th century, hallmark imagery, and contemporary stickers, crystals, and flowers, Colby expands upon her ongoing investigation in materiality as a container for normative social constructs and as such, mundane violence. Reflecting on personal experiences and ideas of love and lovability, Colby’s collages constitute kinds of love letters to herself, absurdly abundant and superfluous.

Pretend That You Love Me - is comprised of 25 collages created in 2023.

FOR YOU
2023, Found Valentine's Day cards, die-cuts, plastic flatbacks, and stickers on paper
18 x 13 x 0.5”

I DREAM ABOUT YOU -
2023, Found Valentine's Day cards, die-cuts, plastic flatbacks, and stickers on paper
18.5 x 13 x 0.5”

I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
2023, Found Valentine's Day cards, die-cuts, plastic flatbacks, and stickers on paper
16 x 12 x 0.5”

Paintings (2020)

Max Colby’s series of gouache paintings from 2020 are set on top of contemporary sticker collages. Each painting is derivative of an historic Crewel embroidery, a popular embroidery technique and aesthetic seen primarily in Victorian England and Colonial America. The works Colby references (pulled from public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) feature primarily floral and landscape content, highlighting the prominent role that creating an updated geography through “natural history” was in justifying imperialism. Further complicated by the role embroidery had in these periods as an element of a young girl’s education, Crewel embroidery allows us to consider the role of aesthetics in many social constructions such as taste, class, gender, craft vs. fine art, and utility. This research parameter/focus introduced much of the language she has built around material use since. She continues to return to the subject to make work as studies in between large-scale projects.

Colby’s series of crewel embroidery studies in gouache were a focal point in her campus-wide public art commission at Rockefeller Center in 2022. Presented by Art Production Fund, Colby produced a 125-foot-long mural featuring these paintings in the concourse of 45 Rockefeller Plaza. Recent writing has included an essay by Alpesh Patel on the occasion of ‘Form and Formless: Constellations of Knowledge’ at Urban Glass.

Untitled #12 (after Ruth Culver Coleman)
2020, Gouache on sticker sheet negative and tracing paper laid over stickers on paper, 14 x 11”

Untitled #8 (after Ruth Culver Coleman)
2020, Gouache on sticker sheet negative and tracing paper laid over stickers on paper, 14 x 11”

Untitled #18 (after Anonymous)
2020, Gouache on sticker sheet negative and tracing paper laid over stickers on paper, 14 x 11”

Drawings (2021 & 2023)

Colby’s drawings in pen, ink, and/or marker are a common point of return in her practice which she has addressed in series created in 2021 and 2023. Her drawings are derivative of historic Crewel embroideries, a popular technique and aesthetic seen primarily in Victorian England and Colonial America. The works Colby references (pulled from public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) feature primarily floral and landscape content, highlighting the prominent role that creating an updated geography through “natural history” was in justifying imperialism. Further complicated by the role embroidery had in these periods as an element of a young girl’s education, critical reflections on Crewel embroidery allows a re-consideration of the role of aesthetics in many social constructions such as taste, class, gender, craft vs. fine art, and utility. This research parameter/focus introduced much of the language she has built around material use since. She continues to return to the subject to make work as studies in between large-scale projects.

A selection of Colby’s 2023 series of 60 crewel embroidery studies were featured in a private viewing room titled ‘Echo’ presented by Aicon Gallery, New York in the summer of 2023.

Untitled
2023, Ink on paper, 14 x 10”

Untitled
2023, Pen and ink on paper, 12 x 9”

Untitled
2023, Ink on paper, 14 x 10”

Max Colby (b. 1990, American) examines popular cultural codes and symbols embedded in mundane materials. Her practice spans sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, and collage. Her work explores transfiguration and tensions between love and death; celebration and mourning; materiality and abstraction. Colby’s sculptural work bears initial reference to ceremonial assembly, funereal objects, and altars. In material, she parodies colonial and imperial American aesthetics, a framework she subverts through humor and assemblages of excess. What culminates are transfigurations of symbols towards abstract portals, gateways, and unknown objects, allowing for expansive possibilities past known categorical approaches to the body and a desire for rites to solidify them.

The artist questions categorical fixity, seeking breaks beyond normative structures making work which instills a sense of non-place, non-home, and expansive potentiality. Colby’s work challenges these broad desires from a trans subjectivity. In a predominantly abundant application, she inserts evidence of life, calls for celebration, commemoration, in the face of antagonistic consumptions and expulsions of [trans] bodies.

Colby lives and works in New York City. In 2012, she received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. She has completed residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, the Wassaic Project, MASS MoCA and a Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellowship. In support of her installations and sculptural work, Colby has received numerous research and project grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts and YoungArts, among others. Colby has exhibited at institutions including Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, Wave Hill, and Museum Rijswijk. In 2022 Colby exhibited a campus-wide public commission at Rockefeller Center presented by Art Production Fund. She has since presented solo exhibitions at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles, CA and Aicon Gallery in New York, NY.