Max Greis: January 2012

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The BRIColeurs

Excited to be participating in The Bricoleurs at the BRIC Rotunda Gallery, in downtown Brooklyn. Founded in 1981, the Rotunda Gallery is the oldest continuously operating contemporary art space in Brooklyn. Bricolage, "to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose)", was a term made popular in the Claude Lévi-Strauss book Pensée Sauvage. I have four paintings and one video piece in this exhibition.

My Artwork

The world is changing faster than ever, from global warming and the loss of ecosystems, to the destruction of indigenous cultures and people. Industrialization has radically altered humanity’s relationship to nature, with simultaneously empowering and endangering effects.

I create landscapes that reflect this theme, penetrating time and space in an exploration of this process of transformation. Whether in painting, video, or diorama, I utilize collage built from many individual landscape scenes, seamlessly blended together to construct a globalized vision. The world that emerges is composed of my forms, thoughts, and narratives. I call it the Archaic Armageddon.

My work evolves out of several art history genres: the use of collage and method of juxtaposition recall the Dada and Surrealist traditions, creating dream-like, otherworldly atmospheres. The stylization and landscape perspective reflect a range of Asian traditions, including Chinese hand scrolls, Japanese woodblock printing, and Persian miniatures. Early Northern Renaissance masters, specifically the work of Bruegel and Bosch, inspire the apocalyptic and hyper sensibility of the narrative. As a New Yorker, the Hudson River School is also reflected in my work, continuing the American tradition of speaking through landscape.

http://www.maxgreis.com/

Max Greis

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The BRIColeurs

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