Breaking Bad
Nearly four years ago Max Emiliano Gonzales would have been arrested for what he’s doing to the walls of this building today.
The fully lit basement and freshly painted white walls of Center of Life serve as the canvas for this at one time, “graffiti criminal ,” a far cry from the weathered concrete walls amongst Pittsburgh neighborhoods he’d quickly paint with the moniker “GEMS” under the cover of darkness.
But this morning in Hazelwood, Gonzales is not hurried. He takes sips of coffee and chats casually with the KRUNK Movement program coordinator Jazmine Bailey before starting on the outline of a piece that symbolizes the organization’s youth production company.
Gonzales is tactful in his process. The outline for what will serve as the main piece for this project goes up in what feels like mere seconds. It’s clear that even though he’s long removed from his days of scrawling tags across the city, his nature for speedy work, albeit more efficient, is still with him.
“If I was to do that illegally...I wouldn’t have cared about the cleanliness as much...since doing murals my craft has increased a lot,” he said.
Even before being commissioned by COL, Gonzales’ resume boasted a portfolio of nuanced artworks that contrast so sharply from one another, that the difference can only be described as night and day. One set of pieces at the hand of bad boy graffiti artist “Max GEMS,” another set at the hand of fine artist Max Emiliano Gonzales.
Catching up with Gonzales at the Ace Hotel in East Liberty—a gentrified neighborhood home to a baby Silicon Valley version of Pittsburgh—he’s candid about leaning into his past legal issues, challenging elitism, and the trajectory of his career.
Arriving in Pittsburgh by way of Chicago, Gonzales attended CMU on scholarship off the strength of his high school art portfolio. Although graffiti was always a part of Gonzales from an early age, it wasn’t included in his formal art practice. Ironically, he credits his post-grad accomplishments and opportunities to the part of his artistry that labeled him a criminal.
“My graffiti career has done more for my art career than art school ever has,” he said.
“Following his arrest and subsequent media storm he said “..let’s make something of this.”
Gonzales has taught at high schools and universities, participated in guest lectures and curated art shows. All of which he says has been a result of “GEMS.”
Still, Gonzales chooses not to eclipse himself. He’s equally pursuing his fine arts work under his full legal name; Max Emiliano Gonzales. Through both of his expressions he’s taken steps to make art more accessible while confronting the elitist attitudes that often surrounds fine art. Last year, in collaboration with friend and fellow Pittsburgh artist Jerome “Chu” Charles, the two curated an art show that highlighted artists of color in order to center the conversation about local art on marginalized groups.
Sitting on a bench on the hotel’s lower level, Gonzales contemplates his future career plans. His lunch is running long today but his current job at the Carnegie Library down the street affords him a bit of flexibility.
Flexibility; and creative freedom are what he hopes to have more of in his art career—more commissioned pieces and murals that allow him to fully showcase his talents. His next opportunity is a residency in Chicago that will hopefully give him the space to create a mural of his own. On the walls back home that inspired Gonzales, GEMS comes full circle.
-Zion Adissem
