Max Hammond

Growing up in Salt Lake City, he was struck by the inescapable solitude of the vast stretches of this area, from the absolute flatness of the salt flats to the surreal quality of the salt marshes. It was this desolate landscape he began to paint in college.

After winning a trip to Mexico for six weeks, Hammond was struck by the way the Mexicans used undiluted colors to bring life to what appeared to be stark living conditions. It was at this point that color began to take on a new life in his paintings.

His current work occasionally returns to the figures he originally painted where he weaves in and out of abstraction, sometimes almost recognizable, then blurring to pure color, form and texture.