Max Estenger
Max Estenger, ‘Lavender’ (2017). Oil on wood 24 x 24” / 61 x 61 cm (four joined panels).
Max Estenger, ‘Red’ (2017). Oil on canvas, stainless steel, clear vinyl 72 x 93.5” / 183 x 237 cm (five joined panels)
Max Estenger, 'Black' (2017). Oil on stainless steel, canvas, clear vinyl 72.5” x 40” / 184 x 101.6 cm (six joined panels)
Related press:
Sharon Butler. “Openings: Selected Exhibitions,” Two Coats of Paint, Sept 2017. (PDF)
new paintings
Sept 9 - Oct 15, 2017
Opening reception: Sat, Sept 9, 6-9pm
Hours: Weekends 12-6pm | and by appointment
Directions:Norte Maar, 88 Pine Street, Cypress Hills, Brooklyn
J/Z Train to Brooklyn. Crescent Street Stop
Norte Maar is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Max Estenger from September 9-October 15. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 9 from 6-9pm and thereafter the gallery will be open weekends 12-6pm and by appointment through Oct 15.
For the past three decades, Max Estenger has been developing new possibilities for abstraction. Utilizing a rigorous formal language as the driving force, his painted objects are involved in conversation with art history and the ongoing dialogue with the various parameters of abstract painting—formal, material and ideological. Estenger’s work brings together a visual clarity, integrity and moral dimension with a tough-minded tenacity fusing a serious study of direct experience with aesthetic gratification.
In this exhibition, Estenger continues his juxtaposition of disparate materials—raw canvas, stainless steel, clear vinyl and wood panels—to create multi-paneled works. The resulting interplay of surface, structure and color refine certain aspects of his practice while celebrating paint and color as never before in his work. Polarities such as hard/soft, opaque/transparent, painted/unpainted, matte/glossy, inside/outside, actual/virtual, etc. abound and become the content of the work.
“With this exhibition of new painting by Max Estenger,” explains Jason Andrew, Executive Director of Norte Maar, “we play forward our ongoing mission to promote the work by artists that challenge the way we see and experience the world. Like ‘the simple expression of complex thought,’ as the minimalist Donald Judd once said, Estenger takes on not only the compounding history of minimalism and hard-edge abstraction, but also its serialization and ubiquitous past. Further, it's ever so exciting to have such cutting edge painting being made right here in Cypress Hills.”
“I have always thought that abstraction was as epochal as Renaissance illusionism and if that tradition could last 500 years or so, abstraction could yield at least 200 years. We are in abstraction’s second century and I see no reason why interesting, fresh, and inventive work can’t still come from what started in 1912.” — Max Estenger in conversation with Matthew Delegete
Max Estenger was born in Los Angeles, California and received his M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. He has been living and working in New York City since 1988. His most recent exhibition was a mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson in 2016. A fully-illustrated 48-page catalogue was published on the occasion by MOCA Tucson with an essay by curator Jocko Weyland. Estenger lives in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
A fully-illustrated 44-page catalogue including an interview with the artist and Matthew Delegete is available in both print and digital format .
