Skip to main content
(Press Enter)
Max Manning

Max Manning


Max Manning is a Houston-based artist whose abstract paintings explore the tension between the digital and the human. Working with disrupted visual systems and loosely figurative forms, he creates “algorithmic abstractions” that reflect the fractured, overstimulated landscapes of contemporary life while offering moments of stillness and reflection.
Manning's work has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, featured in major biennials and contemporary art publications, and is represented by galleries in both the U.S. and internationally.

All artworks by artist



Max Manning (b. 1988) is a Houston-based painter whose practice can be described as “algorithmic abstraction”, studio-built systems that he deliberately disrupts to create compositions where loosely figurative fragments, patterns, and color fields collide. Working in series, Manning sets up rule-driven visual frameworks such as grids, repeated motifs, cut-outs, and layered shapes, and then interrupts them through shifts in palette, gesture, and scale. The result is a retro-contemporary language: paintings that acknowledge a world shaped by data and screens while insisting on the tactility, stillness, and breath of paint.

Manning earned a BFA in Two-Dimensional Studies from Bowling Green State University (2011) and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati (2014). His work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad and gained early institutional and critical attention through selection for the 2017 Texas Biennial, curated by Leslie Moody Castro, with press coverage in Texas arts media. 

Career milestones include representation with TW Fine Art (Brisbane) and Todd Weiner Gallery (Kansas City), where bodies of work from 2015–2024 trace the evolution of his patterned, color-forward vocabulary. Exhibitions and placements have spanned artist-run and institutional contexts, including The Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn), Durden and Ray (Los Angeles), Lawndale Art Center (Houston), Espacio 20/20 (San Juan), Le Praticable (Rennes), and Saatchi Gallery (London). His paintings have also been profiled by independent outlets and catalogs such as Maake Magazine, Fresh Paint Magazine, and Studio Visit Magazine.

Across his practice, Manning has maintained a clear studio ethos: to “paint through the questions” of life lived alongside algorithms. Instead of reproducing digital aesthetics, he uses rule sets to destabilize them—allowing glitches, misalignments, and pauses to surface. The work’s visual “systems” act less like predictive code and more like open, humanized structures where attention can rest. This stance has resonated with curators and collectors attuned to abstraction’s current arc: grounded in art-historical form, responsive to contemporary cognition, and committed to the slow time of looking.

Max Manning (b. 1988) is a Houston-based painter whose practice can be described as “algorithmic abstraction”, studio-built systems that he deliberately disrupts to create compositions where loosely figurative fragments, patterns, and color fields collide. Working in series, Manning sets up rule-driven visual frameworks such as grids, repeated motifs, cut-outs, and layered shapes, and then interrupts them through shifts in palette, gesture, and scale. The result is a retro-contemporary language: paintings that acknowledge a world shaped by data and screens while insisting on the tactility, stillness, and breath of paint.

Manning earned a BFA in Two-Dimensional Studies from Bowling Green State University (2011) and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati (2014). His work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad and gained early institutional and critical attention through selection for the 2017 Texas Biennial, curated by Leslie Moody Castro, with press coverage in Texas arts media. 

Career milestones include representation with TW Fine Art (Brisbane) and Todd Weiner Gallery (Kansas City), where bodies of work from 2015–2024 trace the evolution of his patterned, color-forward vocabulary. Exhibitions and placements have spanned artist-run and institutional contexts, including The Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn), Durden and Ray (Los Angeles), Lawndale Art Center (Houston), Espacio 20/20 (San Juan), Le Praticable (Rennes), and Saatchi Gallery (London). His paintings have also been profiled by independent outlets and catalogs such as Maake Magazine, Fresh Paint Magazine, and Studio Visit Magazine.

Across his practice, Manning has maintained a clear studio ethos: to “paint through the questions” of life lived alongside algorithms. Instead of reproducing digital aesthetics, he uses rule sets to destabilize them—allowing glitches, misalignments, and pauses to surface. The work’s visual “systems” act less like predictive code and more like open, humanized structures where attention can rest. This stance has resonated with curators and collectors attuned to abstraction’s current arc: grounded in art-historical form, responsive to contemporary cognition, and committed to the slow time of looking.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017
  • Language Game, TW Fine Art, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2015
  • In Tongues, EN EM Art Space, Sacramento, California
2014
  • Now Made with Real Paint, No Future Projects (online)
  • Soul-Rocket, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2013
  • Uberplasticist Exhibition #1, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2011
  • Screening Reality: Erotomania (Paintings and Drawings by Max Manning), Bowen Thompson Student Union, Bowling Green, Ohio

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
  • Space City Spotlight, Seismic Gallery, Houston, Texas
2023
  • No Zoning, Reeves Art and Design, Houston, Texas
2022
  • Crimson Tide, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco, California
  • The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas
  • Small Works, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco, California
  • Summer Preview, Todd Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
  • 2022 Salina Biennial, Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas
  • Project for Ukraine, Far By Wide — Online Exhibition
  • Miami University Yeck Young Painters Competition, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
2021
  • Quiet Fire, curated by Jessica Cannon and Jay Gaskill, Far By Wide — Online Exhibition
  • Not Just Another Anthropocenic Love Story, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • DAAP Made, University of Cincinnati Indian Hill Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Loop, Box 13 ArtSpace, Houston, Texas
2020
  • Concrete Pocket, Houston Community College Central Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • Lines of Thought, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea
  • Flatfile Exhibition, Collar Works, Troy, New York
  • Mirror Eye, curated by Youngspace and Far by Wide, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
  • Ortega y Gasset Flatfile Exhibition, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, New York
2019
  • The Christmas Edit, TWFINEART
  • Group Art Show, Todd Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, MO
  • Be. Long. I Like Your Work Juried Exhibition, curated by Erika B. Hess, David Linneweh, and Mychaelyn Michalec, Dutoit Gallery, Dayton, Ohio
  • Of Texas, curated by Adam Farcus, Lease Agreement, Lubbock, Texas
  • Priority Mail, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
  • Art Hustle, Reed Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
  • Lobster Dinner, curated by Will Hutnick, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2018
  • Trade Show, My Friend PTX, Paris, Texas
  • TWFAX2 + Matt Sheridan + W Hotel, TW Fine Art, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  • Papercuts, curated by Kristian Day, Saatchi Gallery, London, England
  • The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas
  • Squaring the Sun, curated by Jessica Cannon, Far By Wide — Online Exhibition
2017
  • Paper Cuts, curated by Kristian Day and Jeanette Gunnarsson, Tripp Gallery, London, England
  • Winter Exhibition, James May Gallery, St. Algoma, Wisconsin
  • 2017 Texas Biennial, curated by Leslie Moody Castro, Big Medium Austin, Austin, Texas
  • Milestones, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio
  • Antipol, curated by Max Presneill and Chris Trueman, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, California
  • Priority Mail, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • Chaos, Ro2 Art, Dallas, Texas
  • Intimates, Skylab Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
  • ATTACH FILES, 50/50, Kansas City, Missouri
  • Día de los Muertos, Lawndale Art Center
2016
  • Funkytown, Urbano, Berkeley, California
  • The Big Show 2016, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas
  • Small Works, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • From Here, Fluorescent Gallery, Knoxville, Tennessee
  • Construct, 337 Project Space, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2015
  • Be, Mist Gallery, mistgallery.com — Online Exhibition
  • More or Less, Front/Space, Kansas City, Missouri
  • Le Cours de Chose, Le Praticable Espace D’Exposition, Rennes, France
  • At the Sound of The Bell: Break Away, Pear Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Chill, Zen, Funk and Twang, Curating Contemporary — Online Exhibition
2014
  • Sugar Rush, En Em Art Space, Sacramento, California
  • New Abstraction: 3 Select, Metropolis Collective, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
  • Extraordinary Flecks and Things Butting Up, LOHIOH, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • By The Pleasure of Doing, Espacio 20/20, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Divisible: please, actually, introspective, Divisible Project Space, Dayton, Ohio
  • Business Casual, collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Neon Heater Gallery, Findlay, Ohio
  • LUSH, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Fiction, University of Dayton Galleries, Dayton, Ohio
2013
  • Fresh Paint Showcase, Media Wall at Commerce Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Pop-Up Art, Niehoff Design Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Members Small Works Exhibition, Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
  • Wintery Mix, Rock Paper Scissors, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Crosspollination, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, 840 Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • SweetySalty SculptureFunk, Collaborative show with Jessica Simorte, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • All Fall Down, Meyers Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Modern Makers & Fernside Benefit Art Auction, Niehoff Urban Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Renewal, Drift Studios, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin
  • Paint + Poems by Manning and Swiger, Pipeline Artist Space, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012
  • Yes, We Art Open, Scioto-Morgens Complex, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Overture, LeSo Gallery, Toledo, Ohio
  • Post Blank-It, 840 Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • For the Love of Paint, Flow Art Space, Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • Abstract Life, K.A.S Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
2011
  • Toledo Artomatic 419!, Toledo, Ohio
  • Bowling Green State University Annual BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
2010
  • Bowling Green State University Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
  • BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
  • Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
  • President’s Suite Invitational Exhibition, Bowen Thompson Student Union, Bowling Green, Ohio
2009
  • BGSU Arts Extravaganza, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio
  • Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2DAA Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ohio