Sweat Machines (2026)

twelve 7 x 8” copper plate etching with colored pencil hand-coloring

Degree Project Statement:

In my body of work, I want to explore strength as both an external and internal force influencing men. Strength is a very ambiguous and charged term. I specifically look at it from the perspective of masculinity, men seek strength, and are at the mercy of strength. A receding hairline is an influential force, and the need to resist it is an attempt at strength. Men desire control, control through strength, control over their age, their sensitivity, and their appearance. I expect this strength alludes to a facade, layers and layers of callous muscle and brick protect our true fleshy sensitive animal self. Men are pathetic builders who yearn to exist in their cocoon. I hope my work gives these ideas more eloquence, describing through color and shape more succinctly conveys this train of thought. Humor is also a tool I use in my work, both as a means to make this awkwardness more palatable and as a concession that I am unable to meet these ideas head-on. I hope my work begs questions; the question of “who?” is meaningful to me, not to be answered with a name or a face but with an internal investigation. My subjects are all me, but not uniquely so; they are the aspects of myself that I expect are in all people. In a way, I make work so that people might empathize with me, and what I otherwise don’t show.

My mode of working has morphed into a symbiotic process between my love for shapes, colors, and textures as visual fluff and the sporadic instinctual plumbing of my subconscious; somewhere these two avenues cross and I arrive at an image. Printmaking as a practice is a worthy vessel for all the ingredients in my images, through woodcut and etching, I simultaneously have control and cede control over texture and shape. While the labor aspect of these processes allows me to build a relationship with the subject, which can manifest visually. Furthermore, I find the violence of a woodcut or an etching subdued by a soft palette or a friendly shape to serve my subject of masculinity and its inherent dichotomy.

In contemporary work, the subject of masculinity is commonly contextualized by whiteness, wealth, and a hegemonic superiority, and while I find these themes salient to my work, I hope to convey my ideas with less venom. Visually, I am inspired by the works of Philip Guston, especially in his portraiture that captures a masculine tenderness that I find really speaks to me. Similarly, I find the work of Anthony Coleman to be a great source of inspiration as a way of shepherding humor and crudeness into a space taken seriously.

MAX PERMAN

2026 2025 2024 2023

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