Max Dean (artist)

Max Dean
Born (1949-06-29) June 29, 1949 (age 75)[1]
Leeds, England
NationalityCanadian
OccupationArtist
Notable workThe Table: Childhood
Robotic Chair

Max Dean (born June 29, 1949) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist.[2][3][4]

Life

Dean was born June 29, 1949, in Leeds, England. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1952,[5] settling in Vancouver.[1]

Work

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Dean did multimedia performances involving his body in conjunction with sound, photography and other media.[6][7][8] Dean`s Telephone Project (1982) was an installation that allowed up to 16 persons to talk on a telephone line.[9]

Since the 1980s, Dean has become known for his installations that use robotics and electronics to achieve artistic effects.[10] His work As Yet Untitled (1992-1995) involves a robotic arm that presents generic family photos to the viewer, who must act to prevent the photo from being immediately shredded.[11][12][13][14] The piece received extensive press and critical coverage[15][16][17][18][19] and was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario.[20]

Dean has collaborated extensively with Cornell University professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Raffaello D'Andrea. Between 2003 and 2006[21] they collaborated with Canadian artist Matt Donovan to create the installation work Robotic Chair, a chair that falls apart and puts itself back together again without human intervention.[22][23][24] Dean also collaborated with D'Andrea on the work The Table: Childhood, which was included in the Arsenale section of the 2001 Venice Biennale.[2][25][26]

He is the subject of Katherine Knight's 2021 documentary film Still Max.[27] In 2022, the Portrait Gallery of Canada organized Max Dean: Portrait of the Artist as Artist, an online exhibition curated by Ann Thomas as guest curator.[28]

Collections

Dean's work is included in several museum collections, including the National Gallery of Canada[2] and the Vancouver Art Gallery.[29] His piece As Yet Untitled is part of the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.[20]

Awards

In 1997, Dean received the Jean A. Chalmers National Visual Arts Award from the Ontario Arts Council.[30] In 2005, Dean received the Gershon Iskowitz prize from the Art Gallery of Ontario.[5][31] In 2014, he was a recipient of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Roger Matuz (1997). Contemporary Canadian artists. Gale Canada. ISBN 978-1-896413-46-4.
  2. ^ a b c "Max Dean - National Gallery of Canada". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts". Canada Council. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  4. ^ "Max Dean: A Year of Waiting". Canadian Art. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Artist Max Dean wins Gershon Iskowitz Prize". The Globe and Mail. May 27, 2005. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Mark, Lisa Gabrielle. "Button Pusher" (PDF). Canadian Art. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  7. ^ A. A. Bronson; Peggy Gale (1979). Performance by artists. Art Metropole. ISBN 978-0-920956-00-7.
  8. ^ Donald McGrath; Diana Nemiroff; Michèle Thériault; France Choinière; Colette Tougas; Tim Barnard (April 2005). Point & shoot: performance and photography. Dazibao. ISBN 978-2-922135-26-8.
  9. ^ Wood, William (2010). "Sculpture and Installation since 1960". The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century. Foss, Brian, Paikowsky, Sandra, Whitelaw, Anne (eds.). Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press. p. 322. ISBN 978-0-19-542125-5. OCLC 432401392.
  10. ^ "Max Dean". Widewalls.ch. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  11. ^ Del Loewenthal (2013). Phototherapy and Therapeutic Photography in a Digital Age. Routledge. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-0-415-66735-7.
  12. ^ Martha Langford (June 27, 2007). Scissors, Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 13–. ISBN 978-0-7735-7686-5.
  13. ^ Uwe Fleckner; Martin Warnke; Hendrik Ziegler (2011). Handbuch der politischen Ikonographie. C.H.Beck. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-3-406-57765-9.
  14. ^ C International Contemporary Art. C magazine. 1996.
  15. ^ Peter Weiermair; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (1996). Prospect: photography in contemporary art : Frankfurter Kunstverein, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Edition Stemmle. ISBN 9783908162193.
  16. ^ Milroy, Sarah (October 2, 2001). "We need artists to soldier on". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  17. ^ British Journal of Photography. Henry Greenwood & Company, Limited. 2001.
  18. ^ Lewis, Jacob. "How the Tate Brought a Pioneering Art-Robot Back Online". Gizmodo UK. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  19. ^ Art/text. Art & Text. 1996.
  20. ^ a b Phillips, Sherry. "Conservation Notes: Rebooting Max Dean's As Yet Untitled". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  21. ^ Sean Cubitt; Paul Thomas (November 8, 2013). Relive: Media Art Histories. MIT Press. pp. 259–. ISBN 978-0-262-01942-2.
  22. ^ Ju, Anne. "Raffaello D'Andrea's robotic chair creates stir online, falling apart and reassembling itself". Cornell University News. Cornell University. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  23. ^ Bosco, Roberta (March 8, 2016). "El robot como experimento estético". El Pais. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  24. ^ Haider, Saba. "Ever Wished For A Chair That Can Re-assemble On Its Own? Wish Granted". Gizmodo India. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  25. ^ David Krasner; David Z. Saltz (February 11, 2010). Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theater, Performance, and Philosophy. University of Michigan Press. pp. 102–. ISBN 978-0-472-02514-5.
  26. ^ Art Papers. Atlanta Art Papers, Incorporated. 2002.
  27. ^ Chris Hampton, "When Max Dean was diagnosed with cancer, he did exactly what he always does: he made art out of it". CBC Arts, May 6, 2021.
  28. ^ "Exhibitions". /maxdean.portraitcanada.ca. Portrait Gallery of Canada. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  29. ^ "Vancouver Art Gallery showcases artworks from the collection in The Poetics of Space" (PDF). Vancouver Art Gallery. Vancouver Art Gallery. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  30. ^ "The Chalmers Awards for Creative Excellence in the Arts". Ontario Arts Council. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  31. ^ "The Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO". The Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved June 10, 2016.