Maxwell Rushton
Born 1989
Working in London
Residencies
2016 – ‘Inside Out’ at Exchange – London
2014-2015 – ‘Drawn Out’ – France
Education
2009-2012 – BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds College of Art, Leeds, UK - First-Class
Prizes
V&P Tassis Sculpture Award, 2016 - 1st prize
Chaiya Art Awards, 2018 - public vote
Zealous Emerge Art Prize, 2018 - 1st prize
Other
2016 – BSA Film Program, The “Magic City”, Headlining Feature – Left Out Documentary
Panel speaker at Exchange Residency
“Eye-opening” – The True Activist
“Act of courage” – Frame Magazine
“Hoofin, this guy is dope” – Tom Hardy
“Thought-provoking” – Huffington Post
“Challenges our attitudes” – The Big Issue
“Unconventional and Moving” – ARTiculAction
“Utterly shocking and awe-inspiring” – India Art n’Design
“Unique ability to both shock and move his audience” – Arteviste
Maxwell has amassed a broad portfolio, taking inspiration from diverse themes and working with various mediums. Focusing on the socio-political, Maxwell uses very few components to construct a poignant language of symbolism. This economic style strips away noise clarifying complex realities of today’s living.
Early work explored his relationship with consumer culture. In Brand New Me (2011 – 2016), Maxwell painted an epic-scale replica of his signature logo using 20 pints of his own blood – more human blood than had (or has) ever been used in one piece of artwork.
After reflecting on the negative effects of capitalism through such works, he moved on to Drawn Out (2013 – 2015). Maxwell moved to the French Alps for one year of self-administered isolation. Over this time, he obsessively covered 40 meters of paper with approximately 10 million hand-drawn lines. After compleating this award-wining (Zelouse Emerge Art Prize), drawing Maxwell moved back to London.
His next project became Left Out (2015 – 2016). Like a social experiment of bystander intervention, this poignant commentary scrutinised the public‘s accepted ‘blind eye’ approach to homelessness. The continuing response is overwhelmingly positive and passionate. "Thought-provoking" (Huffington Post). The footage has been viewed over 40 million times and shared by over three million people. The work has prompted a very tangible, emotive and heartfelt reaction beyond social media, too – prompting discussions across the world and featuring in school textbooks in Brazil. The contemporary art platform Arteviste noted Maxwell’s "unique ability to both shock and move his audience".
In 2018, Maxwell began using paint to convey corrupted innocence through nostalgia. Iconic characters are drenched with a surreal dose of mania – mutated and warped to become an unsettling version of something that was once so familiar. Through the texture, simplicity and spontaneity of paint, Maxwell plays with the childish definition of good and bad, normal and abnormal, acceptance and rejection.
