Haverhill, MA (October 21, 2022) –The Linda Hummel-Shea ArtSpace at Northern Essex Community College hosts a new exhibit by Cleveland-based artist Max Denney. The show is called “Max Denney: The Challenge Drawings” and features works on paper using oil-based crayons. Denney says the pieces are “informed by a relationship with a Cosmic (Cognitive) Genetic Disorder. I call it, The Mystic Man. Through the creative process, I accept, cope, and manage my disorder successfully, with joy.”

Denney holds a Bachelor’s in Art from the former Bradford College in Haverhill and a master’s in fine arts from the prestigious School for American Craftsman at Rochester Institute of Technology. For 25 years, he enjoyed a career as an educator and a world-renowned ceramicist. But he recently felt the pull to return to a medium he had left behind nearly 20 years before. “In 2019, I just stopped working in clay and started drawing again. I hadn’t drawn at all since 1997. I was called back to drawings and felt a strong desire for creating in two dimensions, rather than three,” he states.

Many of the drawings in this show explore faces. NECC Art professor and gallery coordinator Marc Mannheimer says, “These are passionately charged pieces that speak to the work of Cy Twombly and Jean-Michel Basquiat. These works are much more than surface. Spending time in front of them reveals not only the obvious layers of color and marks but an elicitation of visceral emotion that art has the power to evoke. Denney’s works are a prime example of how visual art can reach us on multiple levels.”

The show opens on November 3 with a reception and artist talk from 3-6 pm. It runs through December 2.

The Linda Hummel-Shea ArtSpace is located in the Bentley Library on NECC’s Haverhill Campus, 100 Elliot Street. It is open Monday- Thursday from 8 am-8 pm and Friday 8 am-4 pm. This show is sponsored by the NECC Art Department and the Liberal Arts Division. For more information, contact mcarter@necc.mass.edu or mmannheimer@necc.mass.edu.