Max Sorenson

Max Sorenson is an artist and conservationist engaged with the work and material of ecological restoration. His work seeks to examine and expand what human stewardship of land might look like in an era of declining biodiversity and bioabundance. Mirroring the structure of terrestrial ecosystems, his work is rooted in the plant life foundational to our human and non-human communities. His drawings, installations, and explorations of natural material often borrow qualities of repetition, attention, and close-looking characteristic to many land management activities, including seed collection, plant identification, and timber cruising. He is currently working on a series of ritual returns to sites exposed to prescribed fire, creating drawings by walking through the burnt plant materials left by these active management acts. Ultimately, he is interested in promoting a widespread and joyous re-connection to the entirety of our communities of life.

Max holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Biology from Grinnell College in rural Iowa. In 2023, he was a Visiting Artist at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, hosting workshops and celebrating the communality of ecological restoration. He has shown work throughout the Midwest and in New Mexico, and he has been a resident artist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Cedar Point Biological Station in Ogallala, Nebraska and at Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. Max is currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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