Max Magnus Norman
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, and sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
Norman was born in Sundsvall
Sundsvall
-External links:* - Official site from Nordisk Familjebok - Sundsvalls tourist information bureau. - The alternative guide to Sundsvall. - Blog with photos from Sundsvall....
, Medelpad
Medelpad
' is a historical province or landskap in the north of Sweden. It borders to Hälsingland, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Ångermanland and the Gulf of Bothnia....
, he currently lives and works in Ekerö
Ekerö
Ekerö is a locality and the seat of Ekerö Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 10,322 inhabitants in 2005.Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA fame lives on the island ....
, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. He paints vision
Vision (religion)
In spirituality, a vision is something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation.Visions generally have more clarity than dreams, but traditionally fewer psychological connotations...
s and dreamlike images as accurately as possible, which results in paintings with a photorealistic quality. His works are intended to spread virally among social networks on the Internet; his art and stunts often deal with everyday events spiced up with a touch of the absurd.
A few examples of such works created for the Internet are the illustrated essay "The LED (minor) Artcrime Tutorial" and the Moose graffiti stunt, where the artist sneaks up on a wild moose and paints graffiti on it. His sculpture and plastic arts projects have received some exposure in Sweden, such as his art project that consisted of a woodpecker placed on a traffic camera on the E4
European route E4
European route E 4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, total length . The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is actually only long...
near Stockvik
Stockvik
Stockvik is a locality situated in Sundsvall Municipality, Västernorrland County, Sweden with 2,165 inhabitants in 2005....
.
In another of Max Magnus Norman's art projects the artist created an unknown (but huge) number of plastic monkeys, about 1 metres in length. One night in early May 2009 he put up these monkeys in different settings all over the small city Sundsvall. One monkey was riding a crocodile in the middle of the central stream Selångersån and one was placed upon a traffic light making it look like the monkey controlled the traffic, some monkeys were even placed under water. A few of these monkeys still remain, amongst other one flying 20 metres up in the air, holding a beer can above the intersection Köpmangatan-Thulegatan.]].
In 2008, a statue of his, "Kuken ska ha sitt," which includes a 30 cm. long penis, caused some local outcry which was noticed by the Swedish press: the "obscene sculpture" drew notice and commentary from the two largest Swedish papers, Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...
and Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....
. As it happened, Norman's sculpture coincided with a few other "phallic" Swedish works of art that year, including a full-frontal nude Jesus; the fact that Norman's sculpture was provided with a warning for the young enhanced its reputation, as well as that of the artist.
Norman is selected to represent Sweden in the sculpting of the M2M, the Monument to Mankind project, and is the creator of a computer game, Abashera.