When I’m painting, I don’t experience it as self-expression. The sense of “me” dissolves. I don’t paint to illustrate ideas I already have language for; I paint because language falls short. Meaning forms through the act itself. Creating feels natural and unquestioned, something that happens because it is happening, and in those moments, I’m not describing the world or standing apart from it, but momentarily inside the same current that produces it.
My work grows out of close observation and shifts in attention. I’m interested in how scale alters perception; how a single form, gesture, or surface can stand in for a much larger system when observed closely enough. Painting becomes a way of entering that field of perception, allowing what is sensed to move through material and onto the canvas without being reduced to illustration.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Education
BACHELOR of fine arts
minor in electronic music
IRWIN SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
KORET SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
University of California Santa Cruz
2024
Group Exhibitions
2026
By hand
Blue line arts, roseville, ca.
2025
NImbash
Charles krug winery, st helena, ca.
2025
no theme, theme show
Covet gallery, oceanside, ca
2024
NImbash
Charles krug winery, st helena, ca.
2023
Blueprint.
sesnon gallery, Santa cruz, ca.
2023
salon de refuses.
four chicken gallery, san francisco, ca.
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Antithesis.
Eduardo Carrillo gallery, Santa cruz, ca
2022
HOME AWAY.
POP UP IN MY COLLEGE HOME, SANTA CRUZ, CA.
Maximilian von Strasser is an American artist living and working in Los Angeles. His practice spans painting, sculpture, furniture, and sound. His work folds nature, geometry, physics, and spirituality into a single visual language where organic growth meets structural logic.