Umbrellas X

About Joerg Maxzin

LIVING SCULPTURE Joerg Maxzin has achieved recourse to Romanticism. The path there leads from digital photography to sculpture. Sculptor Maxzin creates plastic figures, arranges them in a space, and reproduces them with in a conscious… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

LIVING SCULPTURE

Joerg Maxzin has achieved recourse to Romanticism. The path there leads from digital photography to sculpture. Sculptor Maxzin creates plastic figures, arranges them in a space, and reproduces them with in a conscious blur. He is fascinated by people in their “different aggregate states.” Simple, colorful attributes such as molded umbrellas and Chinese lanterns lend the figures a foothold in space. Maxzin abides by the modern artistic strategy of generating an event or artistic object – with the aim only to generate a picture – and then discarding it.

The only human figures in the image seem as though thrown about, in open-ended contexts in which, as Jean Paul Sartre wrote, one “exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards.” The figures are not purely schemata; they display enough pose and detail to invite us to reflect upon them. They call on us to go a ways with them, to sit with them, to strike up a conversation with them.

Maxzin’s clear image spaces are hopeful non-places that seem to be incongruous with the estrangement of a hard-edged and technological future. Here we find the longing for a harmonious, complete expression; here the soul can breathe.

Horst Klöver


THE SECRET LIFE OF SACRAL SHADOWS

Joerg Maxzin’s (*1965) training as a wood sculptor before his studies at the Munich Art Academy can absolutely be felt in his photographs. Earth-tone shadows, brought to life in his photographs, develop an almost bodily presence, the border between shadows and people often indefinable in his dense works. As if they were one, cause and effect melt, the rules of physics are overridden.

People turn into patterns, patterns into bodies and bodies into linear entities. Everything flows, floats and swings in a meditative elegance that is assigned another level of meaning through their titles. They are examples of “Erwachen (Awakening)” or “Rückkehr (Return)”, “Bindung (Bonds)” or “Formation” that can also reflect mythology or art history. Thus the “Himmelsboten (Heavenly Messenger)” is joined to the “Hain der Nymphen (The Grove of the Nymphs)”, and “Narziss (Narcissus)” to a new interpretation of Duchamp’s famous “Nude Descending the Stairs.”  Joerg Maxzin makes clear in his unmistakable signature style that he will never let his imagination be confined, and that his art makes a lot of room for an inexhaustible abundance of metaphorical and metaphysical perceptions.

Dr. Boris von Brauchitsch

VITA

1965	born in Augsburg, Germany
1989	Apprenticeship as a woodsculptor in Munich, Germany
1992	Final examination
1992-1999	Studied at Munich Academy of Fine Arts, Germany
1994-1995	Various study travels, Los Angeles, USA
1997	Master student of Prof. Cristina Iglesias
1998	1st state examination for grammar school teachers
1999	Diploma
1999-2008	Lecturer at Augsburg University, Germany
2005	Guest lecturer, University of Ulster, Derry, Northern Ireland
	Lecturer, Munich Mediadesign Academy, Germany
2006	Guest lecturer, Lippe and Höxteer University of Applied Sciences, Germany
2006-2008	Lecturer, Voralberg University of Applied Sciences, Austria
since 2008	Professor for 3D-Animation, Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences, Germany
	lives and works in Augsburg and Deggendorf, Germany

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2008	"Grenzenlos", Galeria Cervino, Augsburg, Germany (with Valention Oman and Michai Sârbulescu)
2007	"Half Way", Artothek, Gesellschaft für Gegenwartskunst, at H2 Augsburg, Germany
	"Ahead", Sparkasse Schwabmünchen Gallery, Germany
2006	"Archeus", Kunstraum Schwifting, Germany
	"Freiraum" (Free Zone), St. Egidius Church, Nuremberg, Germany (with Prof. Hanns Herpich)
	"Fantastic Shade", Galeria Cervino, Augsburg, Germany
2005	"Timeline", Haus für Kunst und Kultur, Kloster Roggenburg, Germany
	"Screen Memories", Kunstverein Bobingen, Germany
2003	"Closeup", Theater Augsburg, Germany
2001	"Pompeji", Sparkasse Schwabmünchen, Germany
	"Digital Dancers", Theater Augsburg, Germany
2000	"Offspring", Ecke Galerie, Augsburg, Germany
1999	"La Piazza", Stadtbibliothek Würzburg, Germany
1996	"Inner Reflection", Installation at the former State Council of the GDR, Berlin, Germany
	"La Piazza", Installation, Augsburg, Germany

Group Exhibitions

2005	"Der Himmel auf Erden?(Heaven on Earth?)", Brandenburg, Germany
2004	"Immaculata|Immaculata", Maximilianmuseum Augsburg, Germany
2000	"Quo Vadis - Neue Medien in der Kunst (Quo Vadis-New Media in Art)", Augsburg, Germany
1998	"Die 100 besten Plakate des Jahres 1997 (100 Best Poster of 1997)", Berlin, Germany
1997	"Stadtmenschen (City Folk)", Venlo, Netherlands
	"Zeige Deinen Engel (Show Your Angel)", Altötting, Germany
1996	"8th Leipzig Photo Fair", Leipzig, Germany
	"Kunst und Bürgertum - Hommage á Thomas Mann (Art and Bourgeoisie-Hommage to Thomas Mann)", Augsburg, Germany