max clearly | heirloom xiv (waiting room) | 2025 | 8.75" x 11.5" | archival pigment print, white oak, cork, sewing needles
- These works are inherently unique objects, whose sculptural frames will not be reproduced.
- The images held within the works are in editions of 10, meaning they will only be reproduced for future works up to 10 times in this scale/application. Other scales/applications are separate from this edition.
- These prints are unglazed, meaning some easy, basic care should be expected with owning them. This includes keeping them away from moisture and out of direct sunlight.
- Because of the delicate nature of the prints, I will be happy to reprint for you 2 times at no charge, with subsequent reprints charged at the price of materials, printing, and shipping (estimated around $30).
- In the event a reprint is needed, collectors may reach me at maxakiracleary@gmail.com.
The exhibition presents artists who explore themes of place, belonging, and hybrid experiences of identity. The works wryly examine under-recognized details of Hawaii ephemera, calling to mind how objects anchor us in a sense of home. They parse identities that are often mixed, with relationships to places that traverse local, indigenous, hapa, and foreign. What is a “local” artist and who can make “local” work? These artists challenge that narrow concept and propose a synthesis of multiple influences where excitement is found in the remix, rather than in a single isolated identity.
Small details function like a secret key - family photographs or clutter at an auntie’s house - that unlock a type of nostalgia. There is an ode to Asian immigrant resourcefulness and a reverence paid to everyday objects that would otherwise be overlooked. They push back at the fetishized display of our tropical surroundings while elevating common scenes to a kind of magic. These artists ask the question that many in the diaspora hold dear: whether one’s relationship to home is fixed or mutable, real or imagined.
Max Cleary (b. 1991) is a Los Angeles and Honolulu based artist working across the mediums of photography, sculpture, and painting. He received his MFA from the University of California Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited across Los Angeles, Honolulu, Seattle, Santa Barbara, and Portland, with recent solo presentations at The LINE Hotel (LA), Other Places Art Fair (LA), Winston’s (LA), and Kaiao Space (Honolulu).
Cleary’s practice hovers between factual and imaginary, between utilitarian and absurd. Driven by interests in the scientific and symbolic roots of everyday knowledge and experience, his works function simultaneously as narrative devices, historical documents, utilitarian objects, and pseudo-scientific visual aids.