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Artist's Statement:
Ten years after my pilgrimage to Buddahist sites in Asia, I am beginning to notice changes in my life and my art. At first, I was overwhelmed by the magnificent monuments, temples, stupas, and art. The scenery was breathtaking. The exotic rituals stimulating. This is a culture that practices its religion. I was deeply impressed by the devotion and the compassion of the pilgrims on this arduous journey and am grateful that these seeds of compassion have grown enough for me to produce this body of work and to share the mystery and wonder of these memories with you. |
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Maxine R. Cable is well known for her provocative work, and has exhibited extensively in the Washington DC area, throughout the United States, and internationally. Recent exhibits include: Art in the Embassies Program, Rangoon, Burma; Amos Eno Gallery, New York, NY; ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL; FYR Gallery, Florence, Italy; Galleria Venezia Via, Venice, Italy; Art Factory, Prague, The Czech Republic; Outdoor Installations, Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, MD. For a more complete list of her past exhibits and more about Maxine, see her resume. Exerpts from Reviews: "Washington artist Maxine Cable explores the innate and illusory qualities of found objects in her installation impermanence. Cable is mindful of the double role of material objects in a culture based both on consumerism and on the Puritan ethic of modest living. She uses objects as evocative stand-ins for memories, hopes and fears, an dfor our understanding of life itself. Cable's role as an obsessive collector of intriguing objects and cultural debris fuels her intricate exploration of the common place and the exotic, the natural and the man-made. In combinations that are sometimes lyrical and often contradictory, Cable uses these objects with disarming simplicity and directness, avoiding any alteration of their physical presence or innate identity. She forges connections between them that are loosely wrought and in defiance of logical explanation." |
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| Mary McCoy – Artist, writer, SCULPTURE, 1990 | |
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"Found objects play a prominent role in Washington art, and Cable was one of the medium's first local proponents. Her dizzying variety of materials touches on everything from the satirical possibilities explored in Pop Art to Antoni Tapies's work with the physical process of decay. But she arranges these objects so casually that they just barely coalesce as unified works, giving them the peculiar edginess that has become her trademark." |
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| Mary McCoy – Artist, writer, NEW ART EXAMINER, 1994 | |
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"Upon entering the enclosure, hanging spirit-house, carnival fantasies, and large, sculptural net illusions surround, Buddhas emerge and hid in mixed-media assemblages while Sacred Fragments appear in Thangka shrines and veiled, spirit reliquaries. Light and sound invade the senses." With these dramatic words, Maxine R. Cable introduced her recent exhibition at Gallery 10 in Washington, DC. And, this is hardly an overstatement about the remarkable, multi-media gallery installations she has created over a long and prolific career – installations often having such technical complexities as a fountain with real bubbling water, the deeply resonant sound of Tibetian monks chanting, or the evanescent glow of color transparencies as temple and sky magically appear in a darkened room. Gently polemic, she challenges the status quo by examining such profound issues as man's warlike nature; peace; the veracity of the world religions; nuclear threat; love and death intertwined; feminism; or the suffering, entrapment, rebirth, and impermanent aspects of physical and spiritual life. The artist's intentions remain, at the core, quite serious, concerning as they do the becoming, suffering, and destiny of humankind, particularly as addressed in the mystic realm of Buddhism, her road through personal healing and the universal conundrums alike. |
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| Linda Thern Smith – Artist, writer, art director KALLIPE, 1999 | |
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"Maxine Cable has integrated deeply felt references to the Buddhist 'animated cosmos' with an intuitive and sensitive depiction of the world of objects as metaphors for spiritual experience. With her imaginative assemblages of complex materials incorporating ancient religious beliefs and rituals into an art form that also expresses a personal commitment to a way of life, she has articulated a rare artistic expression of an ancient and living tradition." |
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| Anne J. Banks – Artist, writer, ARTICULATE, 1999 | |
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"Maxine Cable has brilliantly succeeded in providing the viewer with a meditation on the cosmic unity of earth, human, nature and the possibility of spiritual enlightenment as experienced on a simple yet profound level. More than that, she has convinced us." |
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| Anne J. Banks – Artist, writer, WASHINGTON REVIEW, 1997 |