NEWS
August 2026 Maxwell’s short contemporary dance film Prologue III has been awarded best experimental Film by the My Name is Climate Dance Film Festival.
July 2026 Maxwell’s short contemporary dance film Prologue III has been selected for the Sydney Inspired Dance Film Festival.
2025 sees the release of Maxwell’s short contemporary dance film Prologue III.
The film opens on a desolate, dying planet, its surface scarred and exhaling plumes of toxic fumes that drift ominously toward a neighboring world. We are then transported to this other realm, a surreal landscape where its inhabitants emerge from the very fabric of their surroundings. Some rise from pools of shimmering white liquid, while others break free from brittle shells of hardened plaster. As each dancer is born, their movements awaken—tentative at first, then forceful. The plaster cracks and peels away from their skin, fragmenting into dust. With every shard that falls, their bodies unfurl, gaining fluidity and freedom.
Each emergence is distinct, a singular act of creation. One dancer surfaces from the white liquid, its sheen clinging to their form like a second skin. Another claws forth from a textured floor littered with the shattered remnants of past bodies. High above, an aerialist hangs upside down, suspended in a cocoon of plaster—a chrysalis poised in stillness. As they twist and writhe, fragments cascade to the ground like falling leaves.
The first to appear is the “High Priestess,” a shamanka revered by her people. Gifted with foresight, she senses an encroaching peril. Through a visceral fusion of movement and mime, she channels her warning—a haunting prophecy of the danger threatening their fragile existence.
Yet, as foretold, doom looms near. The neighboring planet, ravaged by its own inhabitants’ reckless pollution, spews toxic air and corrosive rain across the void. This poison seeps into the dancers’ world, a creeping menace that endangers their very being. One by one, they confront the toxicity, each succumbing in their own exquisite, tragic way. But amidst the despair, a glimmer of hope persists—redemption is not yet lost…
In July 2022 Maxwell had his second solo show at No20Arts Gallery, Islington, London.
‘Protean’ was a multidisciplinary show including paintings, sculptures and video installations. The opening night included a dance performance with live music, both choreographed and written by the artist.
A link to the gallery website is here….https://www.no20arts.com/protean
A link to the gallery show catalogue is here…Catalogue Protean
In 2019 Maxwell took part in a group show at No20arts Gallery for the show titled Landscapes. Included were paintings…oils, metal leaf on aluminium panel.
In July 2018 Maxwell had a solo show at No20arts Gallery in Islington, London.
‘Duality’ was a multidisciplinary show including paintings, sculptures and video installations. The opening night included a dance performance with live music, both choreographed and written by the artist.
Gallery catalogue is here
Maxwell’s debut short film ‘Naturaleza Muerta’ (Still Life) has been selected by ECU for the Rio De Janeiro Film Festival in Brazil May 2014.
‘Naturaleza Muerta’ (Still Life) has been selected for the European Independent Film Festival in Paris.(April 2012)
There is a trailer to watch below.
In December 2011 Maxwell was invited to exhibit at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower London.
He created a small video installation entitled ‘Firebird’. A 3D hologram incorporating dancers.
Based on Stravinskys ballet ‘The Firebird’, Maxwell choregraphed and filmed two female dancers in a green screen studio.
A real 3D forest was created in situ using bonsai trees and with the help of a ‘Peppers Ghost’ style effect, the dancers appeared to be performing inside the forest.
In October 2011 Maxwell’s experimental video painting ‘Electra-Raw’ was selected by the Open Gallery for the Open Prize exhibition .The show was held at Shoreditch Town Hall, London.
The video painting depicted a crucifix undergoing reverse electroplation.
The rules of the Open Prize, dictate that the work must be produced using a ‘locked off’ camera and, therefore, no camera movement and without any editing whatsoever.
In 2011 Maxwell was invited to exhibit a version of his sound and light sculpture ‘Breathe 3’ at the Raven Row Gallery in East London.
The Installation is part of the Show called ‘Gone with the Wind’. With other works by Max Eastley, Takehisa Kosugi and Walter Marchetti. (9th June-17th July). Curated by Resonance FM.
In the summer of 2010 Maxwell began work directing a new short film entitled Naturaleza Muerta (Still Life). Set in Spain 1936
The story is about a soldier (International Brigades) fighting in the Spanish Civil War against Fascism and Franco’s regime.
The film was recently selected for Cannes Film Festival (Short Film Corner 2011) and has been screened at the Directors Lounge – Berlin Art Fair and LAFF Los Angeles.
Electra 2010
In August 2010 Maxwell was invited to exhibit a videowork in the Tunnels underneath Waterloo Station, London, for the event ‘Red Light Night’ organised by the Old Vic Theatre.
The video piece entitled ‘Electra’ depicts a crucifix undergoing reverse electroplation. The video was projected directly onto the damp and crumbling 19th century brick walls.
Obscura
In 2010 Maxwell was invited to be an artist in residence at Mas des Graviers in the south of France.
He created 3 separate large scale ‘camera obscura’ installations. With specially selected lenses he constructed the obscuras using found materials within the Mas. The most ambitious obscura was built facing Mont st. Victoire (the mountain made famous by the paintings of Cezanne). The reflection of the mountain was captured within the obscura. On the left is an image of the construction that Maxwell built and below that an image depicting an ‘ascending’ sunset moving behind the mountain.
A ‘stills’ projection installation entitled ‘White Smoke’ was also created during the residency.
Slide transparencies (courtesy of Vivian van Blerk) depicting statues from the Classical era were projected onto large plumes of white smoke. As the smoke moved around in the air, the statues traveled in their own timeframe and scale… before disappearing into the ether.
In 2009 Maxwell was invited to exhibit new works in a solo show at the Museo Pedro Gilabert In Almeria, Spain.
The show was entitled ‘Al hilo de la memoria…’ (The thread of memory…)’
The Show consisted of several artworks on aluminium panels, an exterior site specific sculpture and a large barn like structure which dominated the interior of the main gallery..
The exterior sculpture consisted of several old chairs which had been clad in hessian bandage and plaster of paris. They were strategically placed on the vertical upper surfaces of the museum walls.
The main gallery installation was a wooden structure resembling a barn with an attic-like interior, filled with memorabilia, strange and common objects such as old tin boxes, musical instruments, weights, scales, clothes and bottles. Two separate video projections of sunflower fields in their last days of existance are projected over the objects and the walls of the wooden slatted interior.. The sound of crickets and flies can be heard along with a gentle breeze blowing through the sunflowers.
Octet – November 09
Octet is an installation consisting of eight aluminium blocks supporting pvc structures. The sculpture is a forerunner concept to a future installation based on hotplates and suspended water droplets
In June 2009 Maxwell was asked to exhibit ‘Broken English’, a sculpture formed by laser cut card, for the group show
‘Fault Line’, curated by Sarah Elson at the Nunnery Gallery , Bow Arts, East London.
The text is taken from the opening lines of ‘ParadiseLost’, the epic poem by John Milton written in 1667.
The story is about the ‘Fall of Man’ and the fight between Good and Evil. The cut out text in quill pen style, appears to have collapsed under its own weight of religious dogma, with words spewn randomly. It’s language now appears curiously ambiguous,….Aarabic…?, Hebrew….? English….?
‘A Preconception of Time’ is a light and sound installation
This installation consists of two sets of light pods. Each lightpod is suspended and contains several long filament striplights.The pods are operated by an electronic thyristor / dimmer controller. As one pod begins to slowly dim, the other pod slowly gets brighter. An old valve radio is placed near the lights.
The electro magnetic radiation being released by the lights is being detected by the radio and in doing so corresponding sound waves are emitted.
