Máximo Tuja (aka Max-o-matic) is known for his unique style of collage making. Born in Buenos Aires in 1975, since 2002 he resides in Barcelona, where he’s also a founding member and director of The Weird Show, showcasing in exhibitions, internet and printed matter the most outstanding contemporary collage worldwide.
“I’m restless, very curious and I’m really open to mistakes,” he described himself in an interview with Another Fine Mess. An artist and an image-maker, he creates imaginary worlds from torn pieces found in the real world. “Organizing chaos is the main task of any collage artists,” he reflected. “From millions of possible images (a universe of chaos), we decide to use only a few and combine them in a particular way to make our discourse visible through them. We are editors of reality and builders of new worlds. We are twisting the world we know to make a new one come to life.”
His process seems to be working, with his work having been exhibited in galleries in Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Rotterdam, Rome, and Lima, to name a few. He has also worked with brands such as Nike, Wired Magazine, Spotify, and Universal Pictures, providing his signature collage work for commercial and editorial projects.
“I love to work with limits,” Tuja says, describing his creative process. “Most of the times I invent secret (and stupid) rules of production to create my collages. Collages created with 3 pieces and two main colors; collages created with the letters B-D of an encyclopedia and a skate magazine… these are some rules that I impose on myself to create collage series. Limits are boosters of creativity and I love working with them.” According to him, “in commercial work this is not always possible because of time and concept limits. In commercial work the brief is at the same time the limit and the inspiration. You have to make the most of the story that someone else wants you to tell.”
Take a look at some of his creations (commercial and otherwise) in the gallery below:
