A Lovely Hill: The Grandmother, the Cover Girl, the Survivor
Before Maxwell Pearce was an artist, before he was a Harlem Globetrotter, and long before his work appeared in museums and at Art Basel—there was his grandmother: radiant, determined, and destined for more than history was willing to give her.
In the 1950s, she was a striking young woman who graced the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines at a time when Black beauty was rarely celebrated in the mainstream. She was elegance incarnate—but her story, like many Black women of her generation, was shadowed by systemic racism and violence.
She was nearly sterilized. Like thousands of Black women across the U.S. during that era, she was targeted by racist policies dressed up as medical care. She was told by her doctor that she had to undergo a “routine procedure.” It wasn’t. It would have ended her ability to have children. But fate—and beauty—intervened.
On the day of her scheduled appointment, she skipped it. Instead, she showed up at a photoshoot for Ebony Magazine. The same body that was nearly taken from her was now being immortalized on a national cover. And shortly after that shoot, she discovered she was pregnant—with the woman who would become Maxwell Pearce’s mother.
Maxwell’s art doesn’t just honor this legacy—it is born from it. His new works reimagine his grandmother’s old photos using basketballs, shoelaces, and athletic materials—transforming moments of glamor and resistance into bold contemporary compositions. He isn’t just painting her memory. He’s threading his own DNA into every piece. His bloodline, his culture, his survival—it’s all there.
Her decision, her defiance, made Maxwell possible. And now Maxwell makes her eternal.
This is not just art. This is inheritance, resurrection, and resistance all at once.
“A Lovely Hill” isn’t just a name. It’s a promise. A legacy of dignity in the face of injustice. And today, her story is alive—in pigment, lace, and canvas, in every piece Maxwell Pearce creates. Her courage made his art possible.-
Curator - Alexander Salazar
Explore Maxwell Pearce’s legacy collection at SD Art Advisory.
For press and sales inquiries: sales@sdartadvisory.com
https://www.sdartadvisory.com/collections/maxwell-pearce
