Grunts Rare Books is excited to announce our next book release, 226 by Maxwell Volkman. Preorders are now live on the website.

7pm to 10pm

Screenings: 8pm & 9pm

226 is a site-specific installation and conceptual fan zine by Maxwell Volkman. The project contains a body of selected collage works documented and presented through video and print media.

The title refers to Room 226 at the Marco Polo Motel, located in Seattle, WA. 226 is known to have been a favorite hideout of musician Kurt Cobain, where he stayed just days before his death in April 1994. 226 has since become a tourist attraction for Nirvana fanatics. A quick YouTube search will reveal many vlog-style videos posted by these super-fans documenting their experience staying the night in 226.

On February 21st, a day after Cobain’s birthday and weeks before Volkman’s twenty-eighth, the artist traveled from Chicago to Seattle with a Sony Handycam DCR-SX41 and six collages in his carry-on. Volkman rented Room 226 for one night, mounting the collages on the wall and documenting the space using the Handycam. The film component consists solely of footage shot by Volkman in 226 or just outside the room’s door. The video and audio were edited using iMovie; no audio was added.

The film, screening twice on September 12th, 2025, captures the haunting impact of mental illness, addiction, loss, isolation, and the coping mechanisms specific to America’s struggling and vulnerable middle classes.

Volkman’s publication 226 is made up of screenshots from the Handycam footage, photographs of Room 226 taken with a Nikon D5600 and an iPhone 16, images sourced from Kurt Cobain’s personal photography and journals, and images from Volkman’s personal archive.

Maxwell Volkman (b. 1997 in Tacoma, WA) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Volkman obtained his BFA in Studio Art from Central Washington University in 2019 and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021. Select exhibitions of Volkman’s work include ‘Sensory Archive’ (2025) at Common Ground in Seattle, ‘The River Sweats with Oil and Tar’ (2025) at GURE, Chicago; ‘Pothole3’ (2025) with M. LeBlanc x Goodweather at Rainbo Club, Chicago; ‘MINIOTICS’ (2025) with Pop Gun at Weatherproof, Chicago; ‘Hypnos’ (2024) at Espace Maurice, Montreal;, ‘The Weatherproof Anniversarial’ (2024) at Weatherproof, Chicago’; ‘Offices and Honky Tonks’ (2023) at Night Club Gallery, St. Paul; ‘Sucker’ (2022) with M. LeBlanc at Rainbo Club, Chicago; ‘Shot at Love’ (2022) at Screw Gallery, Leeds; ‘Witchblades’ (2021) at Patient Info, Chicago; and ‘Goodbye Horses’ (2021) at The Research House of Asian Art, Chicago. Volkman’s publications include, ‘Silent Screams’ (2022) and ‘Bone Thugs~N~Harmony Korine’ with Cameron Spratley (2024), self-published. His work was featured as set decoration for the AppleTV+ series, ‘Dark Matter’ (2024). Volkman’s work will be included in an upcoming two-person exhibition at LVL3 next month, October 2025.

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