Max Bi

Italy, 1973
Max Bi
Polpo, 2022, Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
Max Bi
LUPO, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 210 cm
Max Bi
Pugile, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 80 x 80 cm
Max Bi
Gatto giallo, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 80 x 90 cm
Max Bi
Bulldog, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Max Bi
Squalo in città, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 140 cm

About

Max Bi’s inspiration comes mainly from the 1980s, a time of cultural upheaval with global capitalism, mass media, wealth disparity, and unique music typified by electro-pop and hip-hop. In addition, the 1980s were filled with politically pivotal events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which marked the end of the Cold War. Max Bi was more influenced by important street and graffiti artists of the time such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.

In the early 2000s, Max Bi reproduced the writer’s calligraphic graphics on raw jute canvas using stencils and spray cans, their labels, which resembled the original glyphs, and took his figurative cues from Italian Pop Art iconography . Tribal masks from the Paladino or Basquiat-style graffiti, but reinterpreted in an informal way. A lot of fluorescent colors are used in Max’s works. This kind of color matching is often accompanied by a sense of distance and surrealism. At first glance, it is the sum of bright and colorful, but if you go deeper, you will find that his humorous vocabulary, words and Alternating space-time changes.

Max Bi’s animal series depicts imaginary cityscapes inhabited entirely by animals, where the presence of humans leaves free space for the actions of animals, sharks, wolves and many other animals are the only protagonists in the narrative, carefully Look at these animals all have anthropomorphic features and stand in the foreground with irregular bright color elements superimposed. In these works, animals and humans switch roles, with the former inhabiting the latter, giving life to the scenes and making the viewer wonder whether these cities represent freedom or a cage. Max Bi’s artistic language is the result of 20 years of figurative research, in which the artist experimented with a mixture of languages ​​and various expressive techniques. The result of this constant search for novelty and variation led him to draw unambiguous inspiration from the pictorial panorama of Italian Pop Art, such as Palladino’s tribal masks or Basquiat’s graffiti.

Works

Max Bi, Polpo,
Polpo, 2022, Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
Max Bi, LUPO,
LUPO, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 210 cm
Max Bi, Pugile,
Pugile, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 80 x 80 cm
Max Bi, Gatto giallo,
Gatto giallo, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 80 x 90 cm
Max Bi, Bulldog,
Bulldog, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Max Bi, Squalo in città,
Squalo in città, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 140 cm

Exhibitions

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