Max Zorn (artist)
Max Zorn | |
|---|---|
 A piece of tape art by Zorn | |
| Born | Amsterdam |
| Nationality | The Netherlands |
| Known for | Street art, Urban art, Tape art |
| Website | maxzorn |
Max Zorn is a Dutch-German artist [1] who has been active in street art at night and urban art since May 2011.[2] His style is notable for its use of brown packing tape as a medium and cutting on acrylic glass with a scalpel to create portraits that need lighting from behind to be seen.[3]
Career
[edit]Born in Amsterdam,[1] The Netherlands, Zorn's rise began in 2011 after publishing a two-minute self-made video on YouTube “Street Art by Max Zorn Making of Tape Art” showing how Zorn hangs his translucent tape art on street lamps.[4] It was picked up by national and international media,[2][3][5] and by April 2012 Zorn created over 150 works of tape art.[2]
Zorn's first solo show was held in downtown Paris by 2012 in a vintage ballroom, and in that same year he was invited by the Sovereign Art Foundation to feature his first art fair exhibition and live performance at Art Basel Hong Kong which was sold as a unique original for a price that doubled the artwork's value.[6] His in-house gallery Stick Together has exclusively exhibited his work annually since 2013 in Miami during Art Basel Miami week. Their first Miami exhibition together was held inside Wood Tavern, a small bar in the heart of Wynwood Art District that sold out in two days.[7] Stick Together Gallery has since exhibited Zorn's solo showcase of new work at Aqua Art Miami and most recently SCOPE Miami Beach. He has sold out his entire solo exhibitions in Miami with Stick Together Gallery to date.[7]
Zorn has worked on large-scale tape art projects with festivals like Amsterdam Light Festival in The Netherlands,[8] the Living Arts Festival in Bangkok,[9] Dubai Canvas in Dubai,[10] and the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.[11] His live artwork performances and pieces have been featured and collected from museums such as MUCA (Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art) in Munich,[12] EYE Filmmuseum,[13] the Amsterdam Museum and The Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam,[14] the Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square,[15] and the international museum franchise Ripley's Believe It Or Not.[16] His artworks have sold on auction at Tajan Auction House and Digard Auction Company in Paris, Chiswick Auctions in London and Julien's auction in Los Angeles.[17]
Influences
[edit]Zorn’s settings and themes are influenced by a combination of classic novels, nostalgic history and film noir[18] blended together by sepia tones of brown tape illuminated from behind.[4] Zorn says he also finds inspiration from characters in novels produced by writers from The Lost Generation specifically Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Tom Wolfe.[2] His fascination with American cityscapes began as a child when his bedroom wallpaper was the New York City skyline.
His work also is influenced by American realism artists such as Edward Hopper, however Zorn's process rarely involves any photo reference and most of his artworks are created from scratch.[19]
Works
[edit]Zorn's work has been placed in Key West, Florida, Canada and Hong Kong. Through his project Stick Together, his work has also been put on street lamps by fans worldwide,[2] with large-scale street art installed in multiple windowpanes in locations like coffeeshop De Dampkring in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In collaboration with Scotch Tape, Max Zorn created the largest outdoor tape art installation he ever made out of brown packing tape, a 40-square-foot freestanding illuminated artwork titled "Huckleberry" for the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in 2016.[11] His most-valued work sold for $30,000 - a three-panel triptych called "Floating in Time" created in 2018.
In a 2016 TEDx Talk in Munich, Germany, Stick Together Gallery owner Audrey Sykes explained that Max Zorn tape artworks have multiple facets, and the simple concept of a universal medium like tape being used in a creative way can be seen as contemporary art, upcycling art, and help a larger audience understand art because of its "wow" factor.[20]
Stick Together
[edit]Max Zorn is the founder and creator of the project Stick Together, an online game that spreads street art around the world for free. In 2012 Stick Together became the official name of the in-house gallery that has exclusive access to Max Zorn artworks and at times doubles as an artist agency and representative.[7] Based in Amsterdam, Stick Together Gallery also exhibits online and with art fairs globally.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Dutch Master Max Zorn paints with packing tape". cbsnews.com. 18 February 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Deutsche Welle (March 3, 2013). "Max Zorn | Media Center Deutsche Welle". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 15 September 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Stunning Street Art Portraits Made Of Packing Tape By Max Zorn". The Huffington Post. January 9, 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ a b "The Enigmatic Max Zorn and his Translucent Ecstasy". Societe Perrier. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Amsterdam Street Artist Max Zorn creates stunning Art Portraits Made Of Packing Tape". Dutch Daily News. February 22, 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ Zorn, Max. "Max Zorn with Sovereign Art Foundation". TapeArt. TapeArt.Info. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ a b c d Zorn, Max. "Stick Together Gallery news". StickTogetherGallery. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ Zorn, Max. "Max Zorn at Amsterdam Light Festival". Amsterdam Light Festival. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ Zorn, Max. "Max Zorn at Living Arts Festival Bnagkok". The Bangkok Post. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ Zorn, Max (13 February 2016). "Street art with packing tape as medium at Dubai festival". Gulf News. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ a b Zorn, Max. "Schedule SXSW". sxsw.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ "Max Zorn at MUCA". Widewalls.ch. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ "Max Zorn EYE Filmmuseum". eyefilm.nl. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Streetart in Amsterdam Museum". streetart.nl. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
- ^ "REIMAGINED: Cutting Edge at Cornell". delraynewspaper.com. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- ^ "This Artist's Packing Tape Art Is Stunning". ripleys.com. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
- ^ "Max Zorn Auction Results". widewalls.ch. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "Max Zorn - Repackaging windows on the Noir" (PDF Online Magazine). LSD Magazine. 2012. p. Issue 9 Page 280–292. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "The Artist Behind These Realistic Portraits Only Uses Tape & A Scalpel". buzzworthy.com. 10 August 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
- ^ Zorn, Max (2 February 2016). "Stick Up: The layers of tape art | Max Zorn and Audrey Sykes | TEDxTUM". TapeArt. YouTube. Retrieved 2 February 2016.