Born 1968 Max Benz started his sculptural education at the age of fifteen. 1991 he was admitted at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and entered the class of Professor Edgar Callahan one year later. While working he slowly changed his focus from sculpture to painting and after another year he subsequently switched class to renowned German painter Markus Lüpertz. In 1996 Benz was appointed as "Meisterschüler" (master class student) of Professor Markus Lüpertz and leaves the academy in 1998. Since then he makes a living as a freelance painter and sculptor.

The artistic approach of Max Benz lies in depth, space, plasticity, color and paint as a plastic material. His overall guideline is to constantly reach to the borders of painting, challenging what is approved and searching for the unseen - or as he would put it: "I promised myself early on, that I will not merely paint some more nice paintings and will instead try to add a little something to the history of painting."

Besides working with materials of the tangible world Benz also feels at home in the virtual world. Since 1996 - the launch of his first website - he also examines possible ways to use computer technology as a tool for art production. As a result, a lot of his artworks share a digitally based heritage while some of his artistic projects, like the "internet art project" he launched in 2000, were even completely computer related. Today digital photography, image editing and a whole bunch of additional digital tools are part of his daily artistic workflow.

Max Benz is married and has two children, he lives and works in downtown Cologne / Germany.