Hold Your Horses, Grove Gallery’s “Max Went West: An American Tale III” Opens Soon, Featuring Woodcut Prints By Max Hautala
Opening Reception: Friday, May 22nd 5-9pm and Saturday, May 23rd 12-5pm
Image courtesy of Grove Gallery.
(MILWAUKEE)—Wisconsin-raised printmaker Max Hautala is returning from the mean streets of Seattle for his prodigal gallery show “Max Goes West: An American Tale III,” opening Friday, May 22nd at Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point. The exhibition will showcase a series of woodcut prints that reflect Hautala’s wild adventures through the Midwest and West Coast, scenes in which fish embrace warmly, and horses gallop along mountainous landscapes. In this show, you’ll meet old friends, new enemies, see a young mouse who can stand tall and witness a cowardly cat getting a new start as a dog.
These prints demand engagement and deciphering, allowing viewers to contemplate their environment and inner selves through symbols, pictographs, and imagery that function as a visual language. The bold, graphic nature of woodcut printmaking is emphasized by the labor of carving, cranking, repetition, and the transformation of raw materials. While conceptually Hautala’s work fancies a fable, the woodcuts themselves stand fully in the physical world, having been hacked together by chisels and knives.
“Carving and printing blocks the old way resists reliance on the digital world even though printmaking was what brought on digital communication,” said Hautala. “As images are near-unthinkingly reproduced, reposted, and repurposed through algorithmic channels, I present handmade images as a tactile counterpoint to digital overstimulation.”
Opening Reception: Friday, May 22nd 5-9pm
Sketchbook Workshop: Saturday, May 23rd 12-5pm (Pay what you want, supplies provided)
Gallery Open Hours: Open on Saturdays, 12-4pm, through June 20th, 2026.
Artist Bio
Max Hautala (@NoMaxPrint) is a Washington-based artist with an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to making woodcuts for over ten years, Max has been an adjunct professor, diaper call center representative, and a shopping cart attendant at a grocery store. Recently, Max received the Pratt Fine Arts Center/Seattle Print Arts grant, and was a resident at BYO Print in Philadelphia, PA. His work has shown from New York City to Seoul, South Korea, and is in collections such as the Chazen Museum of Art and has rotating works at the Franconia Sculpture Park. Previously, he taught at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and led woodcut workshops across the United States and in Tokyo, Japan.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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