Below are two of Max Reinhard's paintings currently on display at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative until November 5th, along with their accompanying artist statements.
You're Just Too Sensitive
 "You're Just Too Sensitive", Acrylic, 2025
Max Reinhard after receiving an Honorable Mention at 'The Body' show at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative, Pawtucket RI, 2026
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Cymothoa exigua, or the “tongue-eating louse,” is a parasitic isopod that consumes its host by clinging to the tongue, scales, or gills of many different kinds of fish.
Reinhard often uses insects or parasites in his work. Swarm imagery, which originate from his vivid dreams, symbolizes an encroaching or suffocating anxiety. The painting explores Reinhard’s internal experience of being a neurodivergent person with sensory issues, and the hyper-awareness of physical sensations that causes a claustrophobic distress within his own skin. The fish head, or the ‘reverse mermaid’ figure, is representative of an otherness—feeling almost inhuman and alone in these acute experiences. He reflects on an adolescence of scrutiny and dismissal for being reactive to unextraordinary conditions. Disorientation and nausea under fluorescent lights in an overreaction. Yelping at every loud sound is an annoyance. Flinching at gentle touches is dramatic. Continuous othering and disbelief of this lived experience created a miasma of self-doubt and feeling unseen. Reinhard chose large paper to emphasize the monolithic impact of the figure. When painting at this scale, more physicality integrates into the markmaking. The first layer started with an exploratory phase of painting colors and shapes until a tangible object emerged. Using expressive, gestural strokes and a mop brush, he articulated the image in layers that were left thin enough for the background to show through, building on a history of textures. A compressed palette is often used in Reinhard’s paintings. Through subtle color play and darker or low contrast palettes, he invites the viewer into his visual gamut, allowing for a more sensitive reception of color shifts. As opposed to the more tensile value relationships in high contrast compositions, the recurrent use of these techniques allows for him to express his perspective of a world that’s gentler on the senses, even when contrasted with graphic or uncanny imagery. |
Her Body, In Rivers
"Her Body, in Rivers", Acrylic, 2025
In “Her Body, In Rivers”, Reinhard explores moments of obscurity. Paint smudges transform into a face or object with little suggestion. Colors peppering into blends that create a vibration of liveliness and light. Each brush stroke is like a fingerprint that sculpts the figure, worshiping every swath of skin.
A body reclines, bathed in lamplight that glints off of satin sheets. This warm glow, contrasted by the vibrant sky outside, juxtaposes the comfort and safety found in privacy against vulnerability and voyeurism. The nightstand seems to be leaning in tandem with the figure, as the bed heaves beneath her person. They are almost slouching off the bed altogether, as if being swept away by a river. Raised arms seem to shield her face protectively.
Reinhard’s piece expresses a commentary mirrors the present duality that exists between the wealth of capitalistic excess at the cost of living in a highly intrusive surveillance state. The systems that have allowed for the accumulation of concentrated wealth and power are inseparable from those that continue to strip individuals of privacy in nearly every aspect of their lives. Through this lens, Reinhard explores questions of identity, personhood, resting as an act of rebellion, and the vulnerable intimacy of small, private moments.
Reinhard used a limited palette of acrylic paint and a single brush size to capture the subtle moments of light that create visual movement across the paper. He started with a monochromatic sketch in a contrasting color to delineate the composition and value structure, letting slivers of the vibrant green underpainting show through to the final layer.
A body reclines, bathed in lamplight that glints off of satin sheets. This warm glow, contrasted by the vibrant sky outside, juxtaposes the comfort and safety found in privacy against vulnerability and voyeurism. The nightstand seems to be leaning in tandem with the figure, as the bed heaves beneath her person. They are almost slouching off the bed altogether, as if being swept away by a river. Raised arms seem to shield her face protectively.
Reinhard’s piece expresses a commentary mirrors the present duality that exists between the wealth of capitalistic excess at the cost of living in a highly intrusive surveillance state. The systems that have allowed for the accumulation of concentrated wealth and power are inseparable from those that continue to strip individuals of privacy in nearly every aspect of their lives. Through this lens, Reinhard explores questions of identity, personhood, resting as an act of rebellion, and the vulnerable intimacy of small, private moments.
Reinhard used a limited palette of acrylic paint and a single brush size to capture the subtle moments of light that create visual movement across the paper. He started with a monochromatic sketch in a contrasting color to delineate the composition and value structure, letting slivers of the vibrant green underpainting show through to the final layer.