Max Rain
Max Rain is currently operating at the intersection of painting and ceramics; his work consists primarily of large colored pencil drawings on paper and carefully rendered representational tableaus on interlocking ceramic tiles. In a process more reminiscent of stained glass windows than mosaic, the tile edges follow the borders of figures or objects, creating a ‘halo’ outline and isolating each individual. The are painted using ceramic processes such as stains, slip, engobe, glaze and luster, as well as materials such as acrylic, wax, shoe polish, pastels and light sensitive dye. In his most recent series, he depicts a figure or multiple figures in an urban setting. The figures enact scenes, but it is never clear what exactly is taking place.
The scenes are about human interaction and social dynamics, but they are not representations of moral lessons, or in service to a singular greater conclusion. They are individual stories that take on themes relating to the incongruities of everyday life, such as the paradoxes of parenthood, the difficulty of internalizing tragedy, coming to grips with the aging of relatives, poverty, and our desire for escapism and pleasurable diversions. The situations he creates could be outrageously violent occurrences, moments of ecstasy, or nothing at all – merely the everyday space we are used to. Rain tries to make the extraordinary and the routine meet, and while they are not entirely indiscernible, they blend together.
