Colorful Colorado, 2013
Jason Cytacki
Happiness Calls for a Party, 2015
Kimberly Rowe
Public Bathroom Souvenir, 2014
Mark Elfman
Clown Police. 2015
Oil on Canvas
The Great Society: A Work In Progress, 2013
Eugene Rodriguez
You here alone?, 2015
Alexandra Kornblum
The Homecoming, 2015
Jack King
Down by the L Taraval, 2014
Emma Fineman
Juror: Max Presneill
Juror’s Statement
As is usual with these things trying to select a handful of artists from a huge applicant pool is both daunting and difficult. There are always surprises - the high caliber of the work and some new ‘finds’ of artists I was unaware of previously that I hope to work with at some point in the future - and often disappointments - having to reject an artist’s work that I liked by selecting another artists work over it. These choices come down to several components that drive the selection process. First there is my personal taste. I choose what I like when I can. These exhibitions are not ‘curated’ so do not hold the art to a given theme which both frees up the choices but also withdraws guidance and so leaves me primarily with my own biases to direct the action. Secondly there is the need to have the show balance well, with a range of styles and approaches so that the final selection reflects the diversity of the applicants. This means that there will be particular methods of art making that get included that I might have little sympathy for. Curators also have areas in which we are less educated or that we have scant regard for - it is up to us to be professional enough to bypass these tendencies and act accordingly. Luckily I did not find this particularly in this case, which made my life easier and the selection closer to my own preferences. Thirdly, there is the time issue - too many images to be seen and chosen in too short a span of time, without really adequate consideration, any research into content or the artist’s thematic directions and with no studio visits at all. Not idealistic a scenario but the reality of the situation.
Now, with all this said, the fact is that I get to follow my own noseyness about what artists are doing, my sense of judgement (that ego driven arrogance that all curators have by necessity, to be able to do the job, ha, ha) and bandy my opinion around without worrying about retort!
In the case of the 2015 AXIS show there were several things to note....
1. There were more figurative works that I selected than I expected. Figurative work is very common for these kind of shows, of course, but the applicants here showed a quality that had me responding in a very positive manner, as well as considering how the nature of figurative work has changed and mutated recently. These artists were not keeping it safe. They are often playing with the notions of the figure, reflecting on the approach itself, self-aware of the problematic nature of presenting the human image.
2. Humor raised its head time and again. It is a pleasure to interact with serious art, especially when it can utilize humor to mark its own relationship to the meatier of themes.
3. Color is alive and well and not afraid to shout out loud! I personally respond to color very strongly and I saw some fellow colorists that I just had to choose and celebrate. This was noticeable even with many of the sculptor’s works.
4. Abstraction continues to defy easy categorization - breaking any imaginary limitations on a symbiotic existence with the figurative.
5. Painting is back! It was never really gone of course and any talk of its demise was both foolish and vain. But here we have some truly talented painters enjoying their craft without embaressment. Long live painting!
Although my condolences go out to those artists who did not get included, I hope you will join me in appreciating those artists before you. An eclectic band of merry pranksters and visionaries, of craftspeople and suffering souls. Take the time to fully look, to interact with, to dwell upon - the images, objects, ideas and theories before you. This is why we love ART and why it matters....
Max Presneill, June 2015
Max Presneill is a Los Angeles based artist and curator, originally from London, UK. Currently he is the Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum as well as Curatorial Director of ARTRA Curatorial, an independent curatorial projects management team who organize the CO/LAB art fair for alternative spaces, international exhibition exchanges as well as the MAS ATTACK series of pop-up exhibitions. He has extensive experience internationally as a curator having organized exhibitions for museums, institutes and galleries in the US and UK, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Mexico, China, Turkey, Australia, and more. In 2014 Presneill joined the Advisory Board for The New Institute for Contemporary Art (Tempe), Arizona.
As an artist he has shown throughout the world including New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Istanbul, Sydney, Guangzhou and Tokyo and is represented by the Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills, Gallery Lara in Tokyo as well as the Durden & Ray collective. His curatorial interests are with artist led projects, emerging art, new models for curatorial methodologies and an international scope for partnerships and exchanges.