Hadley+Maxwell

Hadley+Maxwell have been working together since 1997 when they met in Vancouver, Canada. Since then, their investigations into cultural history, contemporary philosophy, models of subjectivity, and aesthetics have taken the form of conceptually driven works in a variety of media. In their practice they employ video, music and installation to reset the staging of human relations, often appropriating iconic images, traditional forms and contested histories as they are expressed in pop-cultural, artistic and political movements of the past. In deconstructing and recombining the symbolic economies of these images, forms and histories, they perform a critique of their ideological underpinnings while celebrating the desire they represent for a sense of belonging.

Hadley+Maxwell’s writing and image-based projects have appeared in publications including the Fillip Review, Art Lies!, Modart, Public, C Magazine, Prefix Photo, West Coast Line and World’s Best New Art, published by Bétonsalon Verlag für moderne Kunst Nernberg.

Publications about the artists’ work include: Negotiating Desire, with text by Kathleen Ritter, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver; The Décor Project, with text by Melanie O’Brian, Clint Burnham and Jonathan Middleton, Projectile Publishing, Vancouver; and 1+1-1: Endless, Nameless, by Eric Fredericksen, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Recent exhibitions include: “Where is the Contemporary Art?” Museu de Arte Contemporânea (São Paolo); “Just Play: Musik als Sociale Praxis,” Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst (Oldenburg); “Into the Musik,” Kunstraum München; “Good Gangsters,” Taipei Fine Art Museum; and the solo exhibition “1+1-1,” Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin). Upcoming activities include participation in: “If we can’t get it together,” curated by Nina Möntmann, Power Plant (Toronto); “Nomads” curated by Josée Drouin-Brisebois, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); “There is no Audience,” curated by Adnan Yildiz, Montehermoso Cultural Centre (Spain); and “Suddenly: Alive in the Zwischenstadt,” curated by Stephanie Snyder, for which they are designing a suitcase exhibition that will travel to Portland, Los Angeles, New York and Paris. Hadley+Maxwell are currently based in Berlin and are represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects in Toronto.