On Max Evasion - "Burple Stomp" (2025)
It’s crazy how sometimes people resonate with something that you spend no time on. A few days ago I came across a performance art piece titled “Burple Stomp” (2025) which premiered at Miami Art Basel by the dancer/artist known as Max Evasion on social media. It stuck with me as I have been following Max for a while now and have seen some of the journey he has taken from dancing, his brand, and now performance art. In the comments of the video there seemed to be a lack of understanding on why the piece was important or what it was trying to say. Because of this I left a comment explaining my very thoughts on the matter and it received over 3,000 likes. Which led to me being able to briefly speak with Mr. Evasion and a member of his team about the artwork and his vision. I took all of this as a sign from above that I should rework my thoughts into a more formulated piece, in hopes that my sentiments for this work could be made more clear.
For those of you not familiar with Max Evasion or with the piece you can view it here.
Max has risen to popularity through the art of dance, specifically the “Ian Dance,” also known as the “street billy walk,” that we can credit him with popularizing. Garnering himself over 300k followers on Instagram and over 84k followers on his brand account Bust A Move Media.
In the piece we see the addition of a urinal, immediately calling back to Duchamp’s 1917 piece, and the line “I have created a new color” echoes Yves Klein, who was famous for inventing that striking, almost impossible blue. What’s interesting is that both of those artists had a clear, intentional thought process behind what they were doing. Klein literally approached color like a scientist, creating something the world hadn’t seen before. But to someone just passing by, none of that is obvious. Pieces like these can easily look like they have “no thought” behind them if you don’t already know the context.
That’s why seeing Max place his dance in front of these references works so well. He’s inserting something that looks simple, almost offhand, into a lineage of artists who were also dismissed for being “too simple.” And the irony is that Max’s dance isn’t simple at all, he basically created an entire internet trend from scratch. It became a recognizable movement, a style, a visual language people copy without even thinking about it.
As an artist money is always something that is looming over you, even if you seek to just make art to make art. Money is always in the conversation. Right now AI is breaking down the art industry, as it can replicate the works of many contemporary artists such as Hayao Miyazaki whose art has been a driving force in the standard way that AI creates images. The AI baby painted in the style of Nirvana’s Nevermind comments on the humanist perspective of art. In the age of tech oligarchy, only art that cannot be replicated by AI will continue to stand out. The personalities of the artist shine through.
The whole piece ends up asking a bigger question about what it means to make viral art in the first place. Does art have to be complex to have value, or can something that spreads quickly, something rooted in instinct and movement, hold its own meaning? Max seems to be arguing that the line between “serious” art and “internet” art is thinner than people want to admit, and that sometimes the things we think are throwaway end up shaping culture the most. Max is positioned to become one of the great performance artists of our time and we eagerly wait to see what he will do next.
The Art Newsletter
Creativity. Culture. Community.
Unlock independent analysis trusted by curious minds worldwide become a paid supporter and get access to our full content library. Every Thursday, we send a carefully curated drop of stories, tools, and creative insight for the next generation of artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and thinkers.
Join a global community of readers who never settle for surface-level stories.
