Max Sansing: Technicolor

Max Sansing is a contemporary American artist known for his large-scale fine art paintings and murals. Currently one of the most celebrated and prolific artists in the field, Sansing is based in Chicago, where he practices his work the most. However,  his art has been featured on walls and in galleries across the country.

Unlike his art, Sansing’s beginnings were not always this bright and vibrant.

The origins of his work are rooted in his relationship with his parents, who influenced a great chunk of his life and work. His humble beginnings in south Chicago took a while to explode into a two-decade-long and successful career. Sansing’s craft is undoubtedly rooted in his mother’s career as an art teacher and his father’s employment in the Chicago Transit Authority. Even though his father’s career was far from artistry, it inspire Sansing to incorporate certain elements into his work.

When he ran errands with Ellis, his father, Sansing got the opportunity to explore various parts of the city. The unobstructed and candid view of various neighborhoods from a spot unblocked by any vehicle was an eye-opening experience for him. This is what inspired him to add skeleton keys to some of his most notable works. The idea behind those keys was to act as metaphors for new doors people can open in life to new places.

“The key symbol is very close to my heart because I’ve often had ideas that ended up in nothing. I’ve had to find new ways and unlock new doors every time to reach where I was truly destined to be”

Max Sansing’s quest to fill his artistic void started from a very early age. The fact that he participated in a renowned arts program as a teenager speaks volumes about his dedication to his passion. This is where Sansing started practicing graffiti with peers and landed opportunities he could never have imagined at the time.

What started as small pieces on walls eventually led to bigger murals and fed his artistic hunger until he started to work with oil paints. Sansing didn’t stop here and decided to expand his horizons by enrolling in the American Academy of Art in Chicago. Two years after getting formal training and attending private school, he seemed more than ready to step into an official career in the industry.

Sansing’s work mostly consists of random subjects with vivid colors splashed across. However, he has always made it a point to showcase different identities and skin tones. His work is also marked by portraits of well-known personalities such as Kris Bryant, Barack Obama, and Fred Hampton, to name a few.

In the end, Max Sansing’s two-decade-long career is a living example of how far the artist has come and defines what it means to do art. As of now, he frequently works in his hometown, but you can also find pieces of his work in Texas, Boston, Florida, Michigan, and beyond.