James Cohan is pleased to present a Max Blagg publication launch, entitled LATE START FOR MARDI GRAS, a collaborative project between Max Blagg & 21 featured artists on May 29, 2024, from 6-8 PM at 48 Walker Street.
At 7 PM, Blagg will read a selection of poems from the series, accompanied by a slideshow presentation of the 21 corresponding collaborative artworks.
LATE START FOR MARDI GRAS began in 2019 with a 200-page printout of a Blagg manuscript from 2011, randomly stitched onto raw canvas by J. Huminska, and tacked to his studio walls for further editing and redaction while he convalesced from a tick-borne illness. As the canvases accumulated and he recovered, Blagg began inviting artists to embellish, demolish, erase or praise the 'text-canvases', however they saw fit. Artists chose their piece by title or text, working directly on the canvas or in some cases creating an entirely new piece. The project took its name from the 1st piece completed, entitled LSFMG, by Walter Robinson.
This collaboration eventually culminated in a collection of 21 poems and 21 artworks, that were reproduced in a 7-volume series of red thread stitch bound, hand assembled and boxed sets of booklets in NYC, published in an edition of 50. LSFMG features the work of the following artists: Golnar Adili, Ellen Berkenblit, Ernesto Caivano, Michael Combs, Peter Dayton, Sally Egbert, Eric Fischl, James Gilroy, Nan Goldin, Michael Halsband, Curtis Kulig, Justen Ladda, Ruth Marten, Jamie Nares, Walter Robinson, Nick Rule, Will Ryman, Ken Tisa, Walter Schrank, Ryan Wallace, and Lucy Winton. This 192-page softcover compendium mirrors the project’s booklet series in its entirety.
Max Blagg, born in England, has lived in NYC since 1971. Long recognized as a highly respected poet, visual artist and performer on the New York art & literary scene, he has appeared at innumerable venues including Tin Pan Alley, Jackie 60, Kitchen, Drawing Center, Guggenheim Museum, Parrish Museum, St. Mark's Church, The National Arts Club & Bowery Poetry Club. Blagg has also been collaborating with artists since the 1970's, notably the Hotel Firbank Project with Ken Tisa, featured at PS 1 in 1980, and a poem/painting with Richard Prince as part of the "Protest Paintings" series that was included in Prince's retrospective at Guggenheim Museum, 2007; Collaborative readings/performances with Ethyl Eichelberger, Nan Goldin; and written collaborative texts for various artists including Alex Katz, James Brown, Ralph Gibson, Larry Clark, Jerelyn Hanrahan, and Keith Sonnier. Blagg has published several volumes of poetry & prose internationally & in the U.S. with Aloes Books, Carpe Diem Press, Lumen Editions/Boston, and Shallow Books. He lives in New York City, where he continues to write, collaborate, and liberate his poetry from the page, onto walls, windows, tree stumps and other moveable and stationary objects.