Liam Neff

Le Maximum is thrilled to present Last Evenings on Earth, an exhibition of new paintings by Liam Neff. This is Neff’s first solo presentation with the gallery.

Neff’s richly detailed paintings evoke objects and places that are both publicly experienced and intensely private. Tea kettles and remote controls suggest patterns of habit and touch, while a playground sculpture, a brick veil facade, or a home speckled with holiday decoration illuminate a built environment in flux. Though devoid of figures they are charged with affect; an absence of people draws us closer to shapes and surfaces, creating a heightened sense of intimacy.

Painted from smartphone pictures taken in Los Angeles and New York during the past eighteen months, these gemlike works are imbued with a subtle topicality. They go beyond their source images in detail and texture as if to question our ways of seeing and knowing. In uncertain times they maintain a sense of candor and vulnerability, challenging us to look again at the spaces being made and unmade around us.