In recent years, Art Basel has increasingly featured cross-disciplinary projects that showcase the intersection of visual art, design, movement, and sound. Across artistic genres, the boundaries of creative fields are thinning – and the results are exquisite. From Virgil Abloh’s “Social Sculpture” at Art Basel 2021 merging fashion with conceptual art, to Tomas Saraceno’s “Aerocene” art-engineering-environmental science pieces, the guiding principle is that supreme artistry no longer thrives from the mastery of a single form. Novelty emerges from the harmony orchestrated by the interdisciplinary artist.
Enter Maxwell Pearce. A mixed-media artist and Harlem Globetrotter, Pearce integrates his experience as a professional athlete into his artwork with sincere intention, using the various discernible textiles of sporting equipment and shoelaces to create his signature sculptural portraiture. Thick laces and pebbled leather stitched together on the canvas paradoxically cut fine, shadow-catching lines that exhibit masterfully subtle shading techniques. Up close, his pieces often recall impasto; at a distance, the aura of his subjects inspire a nuanced sense of composure and omniscience. The works speak for themselves; the mediums used offer something deeper.
Maxwell Pearce, Mother, 2024. Shoelaces and basketballs on canvas, 48 × 60 in.
It is not simply the novel use of anomalous mediums that set Pearce’s work apart, but also the narrative that comes with their use at all. Tradition indicates that masters of a craft in any field are driven by a charted path bracketed by a solid line. Pearce’s use of sporting textiles, however, is imbibed with the elements that come with the sports they represent: swiftness, agility, flexibility, skill, precision, perseverance, respect. It also acknowledges Pearce’s awareness that his audiences carry multitudes. For instance, subjects in Pearce’s work embody congruent themes of Blackness, womanhood and matriarchy, power and joy.
During this year’s Miami Art Week, Pearce’s current work will be exhibited at the ten-year anniversary of the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (MoCAAD) on December 2, 2025, as well as with Contemporary African Diaspora Art (CADA) at the Art Deco Museum December 6-7, 2025.
Natalie Kawam Yang is the founder of Gesso House, a creative agency that develops strategic collaborations between innovative brands and contemporary artists to produce cutting-edge cultural activations that challenge conventional exhibition formats. With a background in product and partnership management and brand strategy, she has collaborated with Fortune 200 executive teams, as well as blue-chip galleries and artists, on initiatives focused on narrative development, commercialization, and creative alignment. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University.
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