Who Am I?
It started with one painting
I am Max Campbell — a British-Caribbean artist born in a small town outside London.
It started with a single piece. Growing up, we had a contemporary work in our house: a man with a heart in a wheelbarrow, a woman on either side of a corner, walking away from each other. I would stare at it for long periods, wondering what it meant to my parents, why it was the only piece like that in my childhood home.
When I was six, I had a near-death experience and spent just under a week in hospital. The doctors would give me paper, a paintbrush, and some colours. To comfort myself during that time, I painted. Looking back, I believe that's where it started.
Between two worlds, a third language
Much like my position in life — being of dual heritage — a lot of what made me who I am differed from the environment I grew up in. My imagination and thirst for physical manifestation of emotions led me to drawing and sketching, initially digitally through tutorials and books, and then toward the larger physical painting I make now.
Being well-travelled and having met a wide variety of people through education and work, I see a lot of my parents reawakened in myself. I believe every person yearns, subconsciously, to be creative — the question I always ask myself and others is: what would you create if money didn't matter?
"In my art I see myself — in my art you see yourself."Max Campbell
Unspoken words, painted
With my pieces I aim to evoke a relation or emotion within the viewer that's difficult to put into words — the concept that what connects us is not our interests or our differences, but rather the fleeting grip onto a tangible feeling. Like catching the breeze of a scent you had long forgotten, but cannot quite place.
In the vibrancy of my palette and the surreal portraiture, with its graffiti elements, I tell stories of unspoken words and emotions. When I ask you what you see in my art, I don't want any two descriptions to be the same. I want it to be personal. An interpretation. A feeling.
I want my art to be seen and remembered. I want people to understand that art is not confined to history, that it cannot be destroyed — but that it can alleviate your consciousness and emotion. Being in the presence of such work reminds you of who you are.
Art should never be constrained to a specific audience. My work is traditional with non-traditional concepts. Let your preconceptions go, and observe as if seeing art as an equal — as one in the same as others. That is what I ask.
Ready to find something
that stays with you?