Max Perman

Lives and works in Providence, RI

Artist statement

In my body of work I want to explore strength as both an external and internal force influencing men. Strength is a very ambiguous and charged term. I specifically look at it from the perspective of masculinity, men seek strength and are at the mercy of strength. A receding hairline is an influential force and the need to resist it is an attempt at strength. Men desire control, control though strength, control over their age, their sensitivity, and their appearance. I expect this strength alludes to a facade, layers and layers of callous muscle and brick protect our true fleshy sensitive animal self. Men are pathetic builders who yearn to exist in their cocoon. I hope my work gives these ideas more eloquence, describing through color and shape more succinctly conveys this train of thought. Humor is also a tool I use in my work both as a means to make this awkwardness more palatable and as a concession that I am unable to meet these ideas head on. I hope my work begs questions, the question of “who?” is meaningful to me, not to be answered with a name or a face but with an internal investigation. My subjects are all me but not uniquely so, they are the aspects of myself that I expect are in all people. In a way I make work so that people might empathize with me, and what I otherwise don’t show. My mode of working has morphed into a symbiotic process between my love for shapes, colors and textures as visual fluff and the sporadic instinctual plumbing of my subconscious,...

Artwork