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Exhibitions  >  Divine Hammer

Divine Hammer

(now)
FEB 20–MAY 25, 2025
The LINE LA
3515 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
About the Exhibition

Divine Hammer, an exhibition comprising new paintings and sculptures by Los Angeles-based artist Max Cleary, is an ongoing sequel to the artist’s recently published book, The Complex Number Zero. In this new body of work, Cleary reimagines archives from an expedition – an imagined journey beneath “an immense slab” (a fictionalized location first introduced in the aforementioned book). Under the slab, lies a cave system seldom explored, where one may discover the tension between exploration and ownership, discovery and the unknowable.

Inspired by cat tunnels hand-crafted by his mother, the world inside these images was created from everyday materials like cardboard, pipe cleaners, and duct tape. Here, the cave is both a metaphor and a literal site – an indifferent void that does not demand understanding but shaped by those who attempt to navigate it. The archives (revealing what was seen, as well as what was obscured) and artifacts (perhaps used by previous explorers) render a speculative archaeology where light and darkness dictate the boundaries of perception. Light reveals, discovery follows, records are made, and what is documented becomes claimed.

At its core, Divine Hammer asks what it means to know or understand something, how knowledge is found or created, and if our responses to these questions change the way we perceive the world we inhabit. Part prehistoric, part modern, the only concrete information these works offer is the possibility that someone else from another time also stood here. They urge us to consider: is the cave a site of revelation or a mirror reflecting the limits of our understanding?

Max Cleary is an artist living and working between Los Angeles and Honolulu. Across mediums, his practice hovers between factual and imaginary, between utilitarian and absurd. Acting as a novice anthropologist, his research is driven by interests in the scientific and symbolic roots of everyday knowledge and experience. His works function simultaneously as narrative devices, historical documents, utilitarian objects, and pseudo-scientific visual aids. His recent work questions how our worldview is shaped by images and objects and how the objects we live with today will one day be understood as fossils.

All works are available for purchase. For questions or inquiries, email hello@gobi.la