Latest / philly has heART / Emerging Artist + Oberlin 2026 Graduate, Max Manko

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Emerging Artist + Oberlin 2026 Graduate, Max Manko · philly has heART

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This is Robert Marsh, and you're listening to
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Philly Has Heart Podcast. In this podcast, we
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sit down with artists, gallerists, educators,
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curators, and other creatives who comprise the
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Philadelphia art world to discuss upcoming performances,
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exhibits, and other events and initiatives that
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are not to be missed. The art scene in Philadelphia
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is so rich that it can seem daunting. Consider
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this your weekend cultural recommendation. With
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me always is my producer, Lucinda Degerland.
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Bonjour! And today, we have Max Mango, visual
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artist. And recent graduate! Congratulations!
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Thank you so much. Congrats. So as we do for
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each of our artists, we want you to take us through
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your journey that brought you to visual arts.
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What moments, both big and small, brought you
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to where you are today? I think that's a great
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starting point. I grew up with a very... wonderful
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mother who actually started philadelphia style
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magazine in philly like 20 something years ago
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oh my gosh yeah 30 years a while ago and so i
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grew up with this idea that i could really do
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anything that my mom is this really powerfully
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creative and independent go -getter. And so that
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instilled in me this idea that I could make anything
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and create stuff. And so I grew up making little
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books and sculptures and all these little things.
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And then when I turned 13, she gifted me her
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camera that ended up being my first camera. It's
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like a Canon EOS 50 something. It was just a
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really great camera. And so when I was 13, I
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kind of came into consciousness and was aware
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of myself in the world, and so I used my camera
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as kind of this guide. And so I really think
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when I got my first camera, I was like, I'm obsessed
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with making images and art. And then that kind
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of drove me to Oberlin, which is where I just
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graduated from, because I knew I wanted to pursue
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some sort of artistic field, but I wasn't sure
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what I wanted to do, and Oberlin gave me that
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opportunity to figure it out. So I was making
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art throughout high school, then into college.
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But I think a really big moment for me was when
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I studied abroad in Tokyo, where I spent four
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months photographing every single day, making
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amazing friends, like making prints and books
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and everything. The whole city was just so inspiring
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to me. And now I'm here and I just graduated
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and I make art every day in any way I can because
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I think it gives my life total purpose and meaning.
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Oh, I love that. Yeah. Can we place Tokyo study
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abroad? Was that in high school or was that in
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college? That was my junior year of college.
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Okay. Yeah, yeah. What in high school, like which
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directions in high school did you go to like
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kind of pursue the art? Was there a photography
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class? Yeah. Was there a visual arts program?
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I went to a pretty big high school and so I found
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myself becoming one of those art kids that sits
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in the... hallway in the art hallway with my
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best friend Jenna who was actually a phenomenal
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saxophonist and just graduated from NYU and so
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the two of us were like really driven by art
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in high school and music and we were kind of
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loners and and so we found a lot of solace in
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art part of high school and so I took a photo
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class and I was just like obsessed with it. It's
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all I could do. So going into freshman year of
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Oberlin, did you have already in your mind which
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direction you wanted to go? Or did you just start
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exploring everything? I knew that I wanted to
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do studio art instead of... doing one concentration,
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like photography or painting, which I cannot
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do. I cannot paint, and I'll get into that. I
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knew that I was going to do fine arts in some
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form, but I initially entered Oberlin as a cinema
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studies major because I thought maybe that was
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more applicable post -grad because, I don't know,
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being a working artist versus involved in movies
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and cinema. It sounded more daunting. But I actually
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ended up dropping the cinema major and becoming
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a studio art major because I loved it so much,
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and I only wanted to be in the darkroom. I love
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it. And I love film, and it will always have
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a special place in my heart, but it didn't feel
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like my life's work, you know? As you make your
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way through Oberlin, you found that studio art
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piece, but then you pulled kind of all of that
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photography and studio together. for your senior
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thesis. And that's really what got my attention
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on Instagram. I think it came up on my explore
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page. Really? Ooh, that is so cool. Yeah. Okay.
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The thing that, you know, you just go to and
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you're like, what might I like? Yeah. That's
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so cool. Nice. Yeah. My mom blasted the crap
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out of it. Oh, nice. I love my mother. And she's
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kind of a demon with Instagram. I think she somehow
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came into this knowledge of... Instagram within
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like one year and she's like posting memes and
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sending things and this and this to my little
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sister and I and I'm like what is happening but
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my mom is like my biggest fan so she mastered
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the algorithm she did yes she did for those who
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have not seen your thesis how would you describe
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it how many pieces are there and can you share
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the inspiration yeah absolutely so I left high
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school and I left being in Philly with these
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really kind of broad questions about what it
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was like to be a sister and a daughter and be
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a part of this long lineage of women and really
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interesting and kind of complex women in my family.
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My grandmother Maxine I never met, but she was
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always very much a part of my upbringing. That's
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where my name comes from. Really? Yeah. I love
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her. I ended up titling my thesis work outside
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of my group show namesake just because it was
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kind of like. And so I don't know. I left I left
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home and I was like, what are all of these unresolved
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feelings I have about being an eldest daughter
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and a sister to my younger sister, Sydney, who
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I love so much. She's my best friend. She's two
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and a half years younger than me, but we're like
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attached at the hip. And I grew up, yeah, with
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a single mom. And so it was really much like
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the three of us. I was really interested in those
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parts of life. And so I went to Oberlin and I
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was like, what do I want to do? And what do I
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want to do for my senior thesis? And so I let
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it sit kind of for four years because I knew
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it was going to happen. I knew I was going to
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have a group show at the end of my senior year.
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But I didn't really think about it until my junior
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spring semester. And I was like, I want to do
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something to like answer these questions or kind
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of bring resolve to. these questions and I'm
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somebody who's very process driven and so it
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feels very meditative to like screen print which
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is just a repetitive act or to edit photos or
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to be in the dark room printing and just spend
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hours like really honed in on one specific task
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that's just like how my brain works and so I
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also am very interested in like familial archives
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and how we understand the pass through imagery
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and specifically the power of the photograph
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because the photograph holds so much. It's kind
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of subjective, but also you can take your own
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meaning away from it. So I think the inspiration
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is just using process and material to work through
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complex feelings and emotions about family, which
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in more specific terms is like using the image
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as a meditation for... and giving confusion and,
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like, abstract thought about family, like, concrete
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meaning or, like, form. Form is the right word.
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The one of my grandmother, which is called Putting
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Her Together, was this photograph of my grandmother
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that my great -uncle took after she had moved
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out to California on a whim, you know, in the
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70s, and was, like, she moved from Brooklyn to
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L .A. and was like, see ya. She was out there,
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and then my great -uncle photographed her, and
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then... I found this image several years ago
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and I was like, this is sticking with me. I don't
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really know why, but it feels important. So I
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took that image and I blew it up on Photoshop
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to like five feet by like four feet. And I broke
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it up into individual panels. Then I printed
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out the vinyl, which is like this sticky adhesive
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paper that I could put onto wood. And then I
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arranged it in a grid so that it kind of took
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this like monolithic shrine form. So it was like
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this practice of, taking apart an image of somebody
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who I've never known, putting it back together
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in a way that feels kind of, like, cathartic
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to me, and then putting it on a giant wall for
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all of these people in a gallery to see and kind
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of paying this respect and reverence to, like,
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this woman I've never known, but she makes up
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so much of my life and identity. So that was
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kind of that piece. And then I did, like, six
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screen prints on wood. which was a simple process
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of just laying down a flat white base with ink
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and then doing a bit -mapped image over it of
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this story. There's this crazy story where when
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my grandmother passed away in, I think, 2002
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or 2003, right before I was born, they threw
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her ashes into the Fire Island off of New York.
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Fire Island, which is, I think, a little... He's
9:42
excited. Yeah, of course. It's like a queer...
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Like, it's a queer haven. Yes. And my grandmother
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wasn't even... I mean, who knows? But she...
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loved the gays, like for sure. She would have
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loved me. She would have loved me. Of course
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it was Fire Island. And so they threw the ashes
10:00
in and then thousands of fish just started beaching
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themselves the second the ashes hit the water.
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And all of a sudden just the shore was full of
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these fish and it was like this really crazy
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moment of what is happening in the universe.
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And so we have these photographs from that event.
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moment and it's like this folklore tale that
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I've always heard about but never really knew
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what had actually happened and so I printed those
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onto these wooden panels to kind of tell a narrative
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story yeah those okay I was wondering what this
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was about I was like not understanding the connection
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I understand it now yeah yeah there's six of
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them yeah and so I decided to screen print onto
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wood because the wood as a substrate will reject
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and accept ink as to where there's divots and
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where there's space for the ink to settle and
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so I turned this tale into sort of a topographical
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understanding of memory because I think sometimes
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we remember things and it sticks with us and
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sometimes we don't because it's too painful and
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we pick and choose the stories that we remember
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and so I really decided to use wood and screen
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printing because it creates this kind of texture
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and degradation that only occurs with where moments
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meet each other. And so thank you. And that was
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that piece. And then the detanglement, which
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was just a very large wood panel photograph.
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These were just supplements. But the whole work
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itself really makes up this understanding of
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lineage and folklore. And it was so, it felt
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so nice to share it with my friends and family.
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And my mom and I cried for so long. And I do
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a lot to really work through the hard things
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in life. Art, for me, has given me that practice
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and that meditative kind of flow, and to have
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it be celebrated so well, it was a really great
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feeling. It was that show, my show at the end
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of senior year was just like the best night of
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my life. It was awesome. And all of my friends
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were in my group show, and they're all amazing
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artists, and my professors were there, and my
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parents were there. And I know my grandmother
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was there, but yeah. It was epic. What a beautiful
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way to solidify the memory of her. Yeah. And
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it sounds like it was cathartic. It was. Yeah,
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I had spent hours in the studio just kind of
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toying with different things and putting a million
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pictures on the wall and trying to create a map.
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And I was just like, this feels so big, this
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project. And my professors were like, you have
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to, you know, narrow it down. Like, what do you
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want to do? And I realized I want... to like
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memorialize these moments, but in a way that
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feels in alignment with my own practice. I hope
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that made sense. Yes. Okay. You mentioned that
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you are very process driven. Yeah. Do you want
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to talk about that a little bit? Coming from
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a non -artist background, very curious though,
12:57
like what processes, you mentioned screen printing,
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but is there anything else? Do you think that
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your future art or your current art will still
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bring in that kind of archival photographing?
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Or do you believe that your art is going to find
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a place where you're taking in your photography
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as well? Yeah, I think that my college, Oberlin,
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offered me such vast resources, like a studio
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and enough darkroom and a print shop. I don't
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know what my practice will hold in the future
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because all of those resources are unfortunately
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no longer mine. We've heard that before. Yeah,
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it's really, it's a terrible thing to me. to
13:43
deal with. I mean, there's worse things, but
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as an artist, like having a designated space
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where you can go at any hour of the day and make
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work is one of the best feelings in the world.
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You know, there were many times that I'd wake
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up at like five in the morning and go to the
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dark room. Oh my God. I'm a morning person. I
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love to be in my studio at six or 7am. All of
14:03
my ideas are flowing in the morning. And so I
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think that, yes, I think going forward in the
14:09
future, most of my work will be. just straight
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photography because I don't have access to other
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studio spaces. I'm going to try and find a dark
14:19
room. I know that there's plenty, you know, in
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Philly. I know that there's like cooperative
14:22
run dark rooms and things like that. And also
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there's like the photo community is tight knit.
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So if you really like. Find somebody, they'll
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have a darkroom in their basement or something.
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I hope to include process -driven things like,
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you know, screen printing, which is, you know,
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you need an emulsion thing and then you need
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a table and a screen and all of those things
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I did have. And so I tried to use them to, like,
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the most of my ability. But the camera's great
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because you can bring it anywhere. And I shoot
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analog and I also shoot digitally. I prefer analog.
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I shoot 120 format film. I like doing that. But
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that's more of an endeavor than carrying around
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a little digital camera. For right now, I see
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myself just making pictures, making images. Sidebar,
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is your sister an artist? She's an artist in
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her own way. She's currently still in school,
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and she's studying psychology and food studies
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and all of these really, I think, important things.
15:20
She's an artist. In my heart, she's an artist.
15:22
She wouldn't say it herself, though. Other than
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Oberlin, were you looking at any other schools?
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Yeah. I was seconds away from committing to Bennington
15:32
College, which is a tiny liberal arts. Brett
15:36
Easton Ellis? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I've read less
15:39
than zero. Yeah. He doesn't read. No, I don't.
15:42
Yeah. Seconds away from Bennington. Bennington.
15:46
What made you pick Oberlin? I went up for like
15:49
admitted students day and I was like, oh my gosh,
15:52
this is. the place the people are so weird they
15:55
are phenomenally themselves and it was so welcoming
15:59
too and then I also did see the photo lab and
16:02
I was like This is where I'm going to live for
16:05
the next four years. And I slept in the photo
16:07
lab. I spent so much time in that building. I
16:10
was a photo monitor, so I essentially was a sort
16:13
of TA, but also I maintained the space. Yeah,
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there were nights when I would sleep there, and
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I would just spend too many hours in the darkroom.
16:20
You are our first Oberlin grad that has come
16:23
on the podcast. We get a lot of Tyler, Newpen,
16:27
Micah. Oberlin, I hope that there are more students
16:32
that you guys can get to talk to because they're
16:34
all a bunch of funny people. That's all I can
16:38
say. I mean, I don't know what you know about
16:40
Oberlin. Lena Dunham went there. Yes, she did.
16:42
Not mostly. I think she met... She went to a
16:46
high school with Jemima. I remember watching
16:48
Girls with My Mom when I was in high school and
16:50
I was like... oh my God, these people are so
16:52
insufferable. And then I ended up being exactly
16:55
that. So it's great. It's totally great. You
16:58
really fear the thing you will become. My mom.
17:02
Yeah. Yeah, all jokes aside, Oberlin is great.
17:07
And I mean, I graduated literally less than a
17:10
week ago. So it's still like, oh my God, like
17:12
I'm home now. I'm in the... Greatest, well, one
17:16
of the greatest cities in the world. I think
17:17
it's the greatest, but my friends would disagree.
17:20
Yeah, but it feels so good to be back in Philly.
17:23
Like, I really, I love it here. It's a fun place
17:26
to be an artist. It's a fun place to be an artist.
17:28
It's a fun place to be, like, you know, just
17:30
a person. Yeah, and around my family again, which
17:33
is nice. Is there a bucket list venue where you
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would love to show your art? Print Center, of
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course. I love the Print Center. I grew up going,
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and they have the best collection of books ever.
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I'm a huge photo book collector. And then, you
17:49
know, looking outside of Philly, there's this
17:51
place called Smack Melon in Dumbo in Brooklyn.
17:54
It's this huge space. My friend Francis actually
17:57
interned there last summer, and we would spend
17:59
Saturdays just like manning the gallery, but
18:02
also just... Spending time in this beautifully
18:05
lit old warehouse in Dumbo. So I would make huge
18:09
work if I could put it in there. And then the
18:11
Prince Center, I mean, that place will always
18:14
have my heart. When you're creating your art,
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is there a soundtrack that you listen to while
18:20
you do it? Probably my girlfriend, Pearl. We're
18:23
on the phone. Nice. We were doing long distance
18:26
this past year, and so I would be in the studio.
18:29
Having her on the phone was just, she's just
18:31
the best. She's my best friend. And so, yeah,
18:33
that's probably my soundtrack. Or listen to like
18:36
Apex Twin or like some sort of ambient music
18:40
just to kind of lock in. Or my studio mates.
18:44
I shared a studio with like so many of my best
18:46
friends this past year. And I'm so sad that I
18:48
won't be able to be in a space with them anymore.
18:50
But having them was just the best. So those three
18:53
things. But yeah, definitely. My girlfriend,
18:56
she's what I'm listening to when I'm working.
18:59
Shout out, Pearl. Shout out, Pearl. What piece
19:03
of advice would you share with freshman year,
19:06
Max? So many things, like a lot of things. But
19:10
I think the main thing is it's okay not to be
19:12
good at something right away. I am a perfectionist,
19:15
and what I love about photo is that I feel so
19:19
in control of it. I'm a control freak. So I think...
19:23
I would definitely take a painting class or an
19:26
illustration class because I can't draw. And
19:29
I think every artist should be able to draw and
19:32
should be able to bring form to their ideas.
19:34
You mentioned earlier that you don't paint. That's
19:37
another story. Do you want to tell that story?
19:39
It's not really so much a story, but more that
19:42
like... Every time I try and paint, it just like
19:44
I'll start doing it and then it will just become
19:47
like a blog. I get too overwhelmed by the choice.
19:50
The choice is what, you know, my best friends
19:53
at school were painters and really like detail
19:57
oriented painters. And I would always watch them.
19:59
And it's just like you have to be able to choose
20:01
what you want to do. And I think for me, I like
20:05
having a choice that has numbers, that has value.
20:08
And so photography is like, oh, you have to push
20:10
this. this exposure or you have to do this time
20:14
or this amount. But with painting, it's like
20:16
you really have to trust yourself. And I think
20:18
as an artist, I would like to be able to trust
20:20
myself more. And so painting and drawing is something
20:24
I would like to learn how to do. My print professor,
20:27
Christina Pabas, who is wonderful. told me that
20:30
the one thing I should do post -grad is take
20:32
a drawing class. And I think I'm going to do
20:34
that. I have to do it. That's my goal for post
20:37
-grad. I have no other goals. I'm kidding. I
20:39
have so many things. I'm just going to learn
20:41
how to draw. I love it. Speaking of, what do
20:44
you have coming up? Oh, that's the question that
20:47
everybody has asked me in the last year of my
20:50
life. And the truth is, is that I... I don't
20:53
know. I don't know. I'm looking for jobs. I'm
20:57
trying to figure it out, but I know that I will
21:00
always make art in some capacity. In the last,
21:03
like, two weeks of being in Oberlin, my housemates
21:06
and I were blessed with this, like, little robin's
21:09
nest that was on our windowsill in our kitchen,
21:11
and the mama robin laid four little eggs, and
21:15
there were four housemates, and they all hatched,
21:18
and they all... grew up into like little baby
21:21
birds and flew away it was such a metaphor for
21:24
like what it was like to graduate and so I like
21:27
to think of myself as silly as it sounds like
21:29
one of the little birds and I'm gonna figure
21:31
it out and I'm gonna leave the nest and I'm gonna
21:32
fly but right now I'm breathing a little bit
21:36
after after graduation but I'm looking for work
21:40
and and hopefully gonna make things forever so
21:44
excellent excellent yeah max this is absolutely
21:47
amazing conversation thank you so much thank
21:50
you both how can our audience find you online
21:53
well you can find me at lady maximus prime on
21:57
instagram and my website maxmanco .com we'll
22:01
be right back with rapid fire questions and we're
22:07
back with max manco We have some rapid fire questions
22:10
for you. They're supposed to be short, sweet,
22:12
fun. Yeah. Philly art scene in one word. Eclectic.
22:17
Lovely. Cheesesteaks with whiz or without? Without.
22:21
If you could pick any artist, dead or alive,
22:24
to collaborate with, who would it be? Sarah Kaufman.
22:28
Philly artist. Favorite Philadelphia neighborhood?
22:31
Oh, I like Queen Village. PMA or the Barnes?
22:37
Barnes. MoMA or The Met? MoMA. Nice. Nice. What
22:42
are you most excited about for this Pride? Oh,
22:45
my God. This Pride. I'm going to kiki with my
22:47
girls. Nice. And I'm going to, like, reunite
22:49
with all my friends. And I'm going to see some
22:53
drag. And I'm going to kiss my girlfriend. Yes.
22:56
And that's it. Perfect. Perfect. Celebrate it.
23:01
Max, thank you so much for your time today. Thank
23:03
you guys so much. And sharing your story with
23:05
us. Of course. And everyone, check out Max Manco.
23:44
Follow us, share the love, and tune in on Thursdays
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