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Max Cole is a painter based in Northern New Mexico, holding a BFA from Fort Hays State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. She is known for her densely marked paintings which create an illusion of vibrations - a dynamic effect achieved through the large scale of her works and countless small, precise marks. Cole embraces this demanding, meditative process, contemplating infinity as she builds individual strokes into a unified whole, with the volume and careful application of these marks central to the hypnotic quality of her art. As a person of Cherokee descent, her abstract work draws inspiration from indigenous textile patterns, scaling up tiny designs to give them new meaning in a contemporary context, echoing minimalists who sought truth through simplified forms. Her practice highlights the meditative power of repetition and the connection between cultural heritage and contemporary abstraction. She builds optically dynamic and deeply meaningful surfaces that invite engagement with her visual language, where individual marks contribute to a larger, vibrating field, exploring perceptions of scale and detail through artistic statements that speak to universal themes of perception, transcendence, and cultural patterns.

The artist biographies for Witness Nothing were collaboratively written by curatorial interns Julyet Carillo and Elisa Leyva, with the oversight of Henry Schulte Assistant Curator of Practice. The content was compiled from a variety of sources, including personal websites, institutional biographies, critical essays, artist interviews, and exhibition texts. A comprehensive bibliography of all sources used is provided below. It is important to note that Gemini, a Google AI, was utilized in the editing process to condense and refine the initial drafts into more concise paragraphs, using the prompt: "Use the following information to shorten each artist bio to one paragraph.”  

Bibliography