Biography - Born in 1977 in Topeka, Peter Max Lawrence grew up in Kansas. Between 1997 and 2002 he curated a series of exhibitions of work by his contemporaries including the group shows Safety Net, Sunflower #43, and Kiss of the Savage. In his own work Lawrence has continually challenged the boundaries between art, mythology, and popular culture. A domesticated rooster, fetish gear, used condoms, house paint, televisions, rural landscapes, office furniture, musical instruments, moths and freshwater fish are just some of the media Lawrence employs to communicate his unflinching view of the human experience. Lawrence has said, 'I¹ve spent most of my life, under the surgeons knife. Just trying to find a body that I like.' While best known for the 'Gravity ' works ­ a series of latex paintings created using his pioneered methods (see BigMag Magazine, 2000) ­ Lawrence has also presented works that attest to the transience of spiritual and imaginative existence. An early work, 'Mocking the Midnight Moth' (1997), focuses on following the fictional science-hero¹s elongated life span to his commercial decay; while 'Rooster' (1998) consists of a live rooster in a large enclosure with vintage farm equipment ­ a response to his imagined childhood in the Kansas prairies. In many of Lawrence¹s works the materials function as both barrier and doorway, seducing the viewer into the work visually while providing a minimalist expression; his works objectify the subject, thus avoiding actual expressionism. In many of his video performances of the late 1990s, such as 'Diary of a Toothpick' (1997) and 'This is my truck' (1998), a human presence was implied through the inclusion of relic-like objects in the works: clothes, cigarettes, liquor, a tea kettle, chairs, and a car interior. That implied presence has become explicit in works such as 'Macramé Matinee ' (2000), a video that presents the figure of a Midwestern waitress seated at a barstool. Her actual presence heightens the audiences sense of being trapped and of being reduced to a single function: a flexible muscle holding a tray full of daily beer specials. The more celebratory work 'MOI' (2000), a performance taking place in the his parents¹ basement bathroom, reveals his equally delicate anatomy and psychological condition, heightened by the slow and ugly process of putting on a dress and makeup. Lawrence has had exhibitions in galleries throughout the United States and Canada. He received the CAAC fellowship in 1999 and the Garber Grant in 2001. He has achieved international visibility through his numerous exhibitions, sound-collages and print work. Today, he is recognized as one of of the most respected and controversial visual expressionist emerging from the Midwest. His images of our world's diverse cultures and imaginations have become infamous among outsider collectors in the field of art. Often consider prolific and eradic with his large and grandiose abstract studies of Western and Frontier paintings, to his various works based on mythology derived from the world¹s religions and modern-day comic books.