ARTIST STATEMENT
My interdisciplinary practice moves between painting, sound, performance, and social practice. I explore how memory, identity, and community are shaped through repetition, fragmentation, and shared experience. Through painting and drawing, I investigate how the self is never fixed, but continuously dissolves, reforms, and shifts in relation to others.
Music is both a subject and a structure within my work. Influenced by my background as a DJ, I approach painting much like a mix: building energy through rhythm, layering, and interruption. Fragmented figures and shifting compositions reflect the emotional intensity of collective spaces shaped by music, movement, and intimacy.
In recent work, I have become increasingly interested in listening itself as an artistic medium. This has led my practice beyond the canvas and into Atune, an ongoing listening project I founded that transforms album listening into a communal ritual. Through gatherings centered on listening to a single record in its entirety, Atune creates space for reflection, conversation, and connection. I see these events as both artwork and social practice: temporary communities built through shared attention, memory, and sound.
Across my work, whether I am making a painting, curating a listening session, or performing as a DJ, I am interested in creating spaces that invite deeper forms of connection.
BIO
Max Kulchinsky (b. 1997) is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist working across painting, sound, and social practice. His work explores memory, rhythm, and collective experience through fragmented figures, gesture, and participatory projects.
Alongside his studio practice, Kulchinsky is the founder of Atune, an ongoing listening project that transforms album listening into a communal ritual. Through gatherings centered on deep listening, conversation, and shared attention, Atune extends his interest in the ways sound can create connection and temporary forms of community.
Kulchinsky is currently pursuing an MFA in the Low Residency program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited across the United States, participated in an artist residency in Tokyo in 2024, and performs regularly as a DJ in New York City, with bookings in cities including London, Mexico City, and Chicago.
All inquires: maxkulchinsky@gmail.com