Max M-K is a multi disciplinary artist and jeweller from South East London, with a practice spanning painting, printmaking, object making and language building. His work is heavily influenced by rites and rituals, religious imagery, esoterica and asemic writing. The lexicon of symbols used combines ancient and familiar motifs with his own contemporary and personal language. This world is built as if in the service of a secular temple. Objects and jewellery are presented as imbued with talismanic charm, while linocuts and ink drawings appear to record strange and ambiguous rituals. The intuitively generated symbolism that runs throughout the work does not seek to impart a particular narrative on the viewer. It instead invites them to decode a puzzle that has no fixed answer, one that depends on their own associations with particular signifiers. It is a practical application of an unwritten dictionary.
Education
City & Guilds of London Art School: 2018-2021
First Degree BA Fine Art
Camberwell School of Art [UAL]: 2016-2017
Foundation Diploma in Fine Art [Painting]: Merit
Selected Exhibitions
‘Foreshore’ Group show, SET Woolwich, 2025
‘Valve’ Group show, squat in Lambeth, 2023
‘Alphabet Soup’ Group show, Ben Oakley Gallery, 2023
‘Collision Factory’ Group show, Nolias Gallery, 2023
‘Everything is fucked’ Group show, Kentish Town, 2023
‘Anywhere In Between’ Group show, The Tub Hackney, 2022
‘Gallery Forever Good’ Group show, Forevergood London, 2022
‘Degree Show’ Group show, City and Guilds of London Art School, 2021
‘Doom, Gloom, Stuck in Your Room Report’ Group show, Ziferblat London, 2020
‘An Exhibition of Fine Art’ Group show, Haus Gallery, 2020
‘Interim’ Group show, Art Hill Gallery, 2019
‘Reggae Summer Mini-Fest’ Group show, Fox and Firkin, 2019
‘In the Studio’ Group show, Mall Galleries, 2019
‘At Home’ Group show, Deptford, 2019
Selected Commissions and Publications
‘Let your light shine' mural for St Mathew Academy school, 2025
‘Elastics001' EP and cassette tape design for Elastics Record Label, 2024
‘Floorless 2' mural, flags and bunting installation for Floorless music festival, 2024
‘Elastics' series of posters for Elastics Record Label club nights, 2023-2024
‘Floorless' mural, flags and bunting installation for Floorless music festival, 2023
‘Corporeal Confusion' poster illustration/design for group show at ASC Gallery, 2022
‘Back to Our Roots' poster illustration/design for Trinity Arts Studio, 2022
‘Trinity Arts Gallery' poster and catalogue illustration/design for Trinity Arts Studio, 2022
‘Psychosomatic Swimtrospection' poster contribute to artist’s book by Poor Mother, 2021