Maximilian Arnold

Maximilian Arnold meticulously explores transformation and materiality. His canvases are sites of layered processes: paint is applied, scraped, sanded, rubbed, transferred, and imprinted repeatedly. These actions generate surfaces that are simultaneously dense and light, heavy and ethereal, creating a physical tension that renders the paint almost sculptural. Some areas appear translucent and delicate, while others accumulate thickness, forming textured ridges that seem to emerge as wounds or scars from the canvas itself. Arnold treats every surface as a field for experimentation, employing not only brushes but also rags, spatulas, sandpaper, sponges, and everyday objects for transferring paint. His tools become extensions of his process, mediating between the material and the image while leaving traces of their own histories. Arnold’s work is deeply rooted in collage and appropriation. Sources such as newspapers, magazines, street flyers, menus, maps, and digital imagery are cut, rearranged, and integrated into his paintings, forming a foundation for the composition. This approach transforms the act of painting into a system of layering and sequential processes, where gestures are subordinated to material exploration. The resulting canvases exist in a delicate balance between construction and dissolution, permanence and impermanence. In Arnold’s work, the picture is never static; it is continuously reimagined through layering, sanding, and cutting, creating a visual archive of becoming, a meditation on transformation, memory, and the fleeting nature of perception. Each painting is an evolving cosmos, where the ephemeral and the visible coexist, inviting the viewer to navigate its shifting rhythms and emergent forms. ...