Max Zorn is a Dutch artist who has been active in street art at night and urban art since May 2011. His style is notable for its use of brown packing tape as a medium and cutting on acrylic glass with a scalpel to create portraits that need lighting from behind to be seen.
Career
Max Zorn's rise began after publishing a two-minute self-made video on YouTube “” in November 2011, showing how Max Zorn hangs his translucent tape art on street lamps as a form of street art at night in Amsterdam. It was picked up by national and international media, and by April 2012 Max Zorn created over 150 works of tape art. In a speech about creating street art seen in the dark at TEDx Talent Search, Max Zorn states: "I didn't want to work on walls or on the floor I wanted to use street lamps as an urban gallery and I wanted to use the darkness as the setting around my artwork."
Influences
Max Zorn’s settings and themes are influenced by film noir while brown shades and different layers of tape create a sepia tone. Max Zorn says he also finds inspiration from characters in novels produced by writers from The Lost Generation specifically Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Salinger. His work also is influenced by American realism artists such as Edward Hopper.
Works
Max Zorn’s work has been described as classic, film noir and nostalgic: “I'm generally interested in the dynamics between people. I want to freeze a moment that initiates a story without telling too much... like a screenshot from a movie that sparks imagination but leaves room to decide where the story goes.” Max Zorn’s work has been hung on street lamps in Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, and The Netherlands. His work has also been spotted in Key West, Florida, Canada and Hong Kong Through his project Stick Together, his work has also been put on street lamps by fans worldwide. He has created commissioned pieces for, among others, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Orlando, Florida. He has also created street art for coffeeshop De Dampkring in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In spring 2012, Max Zorn was invited by the Sovereign Art Foundation to perform a live tape at Art Basel Hong Kong, where proceeds of his work went to the foundation for disadvantaged children in Southeast Asia. At Amsterdam street art event Stick Together AMSTERDAM April 2013, Max Zorn created the largest tape art he ever made out of brown packing tape, at 9 square meters in size.
Videos
Max Zorn’s videos on YouTube show in fast-forward motion how he creates tape art. In his first video, “”, Max Zorn reveals his method as well as his works taped to street lamps. One image shows a Max Zorn rendition of Girl With The Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer hung on a lamp, another image shows a portrait hung just in front of the Cologne Cathedral, Germany’s most visited landmark. Max Zorn has made a total of four “making of” videos on YouTube, including a making of video specifically requested from French DJ Wax Tailor.
Stick Together
Max Zorn is the founder and creator of Stick Together, an online project that spreads street art around the world for free. Offline Stick Together creates an annual live painting event held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, open free to the public.
