Kirk Maxson

Overview

Reared on a farm in rural Oregon by a fiber artist with a penchant for mycology, Kirk Maxson's life was rich in nature and intertwined in the arts, which translates directly to his art practice today. This connection to nature has followed him throughout his life. Even within urban San Francisco, he finds himself connecting with nature and engaging with his neighborhood by collecting the invasive plants that thrive in the city: dandelions, mallow, nasturtiums, and geraniums. Kirk transforms them into hand patinated and embossed brass and nickel becoming an immortalized version of themselves. The branch installations are woven in steel around the found wood much like traditional weaving.

Maxson's site-specific installations recreate the blossoming of mallows and thistles; woven branches grow in steel wire across the walls. The results are a regal homage to the everyday beauty around us, the unfailing determination of the wild, and to his mother's memory.

Maxson's preferred material is lumina copper brass, though the artist has long come to experiment with nickel, aluminum, and varnishes to help evolve his materials further for his vision.

You can manipulate the metal in ways you can manipulate paper. I can draw on the veins, and I can hammer it out; it's the silversmithing process now. -- Kirk Maxson

Kirk Maxson moved to San Francisco in 1992, and lived in the Mission participating in the San Francisco Mission School art scene. He exhibited artwork in the seminal exhibition spaces of Adobe books, Ascena, and ESP during the height of the Mission School. Maxson has created multiple permanent site-specific installation for corporate collections including Genentech Inc., Morgan Stanley Corporate Collection, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Collection, Kilroy Realty Corporation, Avant Corporate Collection, Fresh Connection Corporation, UBM, and ClimateWorks Foundation. Kirk received his BFA from UC Santa Barbara and currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Download Artist's CV

Works

Exhibitions

Biography

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara 1986-1990, studied sculpture and photography

Solo Exhibitions

2022 All About My Mother, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016 Gardens of Paradise, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2015 The Voltaire Room, Darin Klein and Friends, Los Angeles, CA
2015 The Voltaire Room, Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2014 Foragaing, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1998 Stockholm Business, collaboration with Paul Rowley, Light Leak Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1997 Flower Shop, Scene/Escenea, San Francisco, CA

Group Exhibitions

2021 Group Show, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 Victoria Secret Fashion Show, Shanghai China
2016 SOMARTS, Pulse Memorial Installation, San Francisco, CA
2016 Adobe Books backroom gallery, Pulse Memorial Installation, San Francisco, CA
2016 NextNewPaper, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2015 Decorator Showcase Home, San Francisco, CA
2012 Captured, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2011 War, Eli Ridgway Gallery “Hallway Project”, San Francisco, CA

2011 Landscape, Eli Ridgway Gallery “Hallway Project”, San Francisco, CA
2011 Walking On Thin Ice, Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA
2011 Box of Books, True Silver & New York Book Fair, New York, NY
2011 Gensler, San Francisco, CA
2011 Biodiversity, Dancing Elephant Project, Bogotá, Colombia
2011 Mallow, McGuire, New York, NY
2011 Paper! Awesome!, Baer Ridgeway, San Francisco, CA
2009 Winter Solstice, Truesilver Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Window at ATA, collaboration with Elaine Buckholtz, San Francisco, CA
2004 Supernatural, Play Space Gallery CCA, San Francisco, CA
2004 The Timmy Show!, Glamma Rama, San Francisco, CA
2003 Adobe books, San Francisco, CA
2002 Nocturnal, Helen Pit Gallery Vancouver BC, Canada
2001 Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto, Debs & CO, New York, NY

1999 Pretty Town 2, ESP gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998 Horror Show 2, Beltcher St Studios, San Francisco, CA
1997 Fakes!, Showroom, San Francisco, CA
1996 99 Drawings, 99 Webster, San Francisco, CA

Commissions & Major Collections
Victoria Secret Fashion Show
ClimateWorks Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Kilroy Realty Corporation, Bellevue, WA
UBM, San Francisco, CA
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Collection
Avant Corporate Collection, Menlo Park, CA
Fresh Connection Corporation, Lafayette, CA

Residencies
2015 Residency program at Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA January 10th – March 10th

Download Artist's CV

Events