Jason Martin

Jason Martin is a British artist known for his abstract paintings characterized by richly textured, monochromatic surfaces. His artistic approach bears the unmistakable influence of renowned artists like David Budd and Robert Ryman.

Biography of Jason Martin

Jason Martin was born in 1970 in Jersey, United Kingdom, and currently resides and works between London, United Kingdom, and Lisbon, Portugal. In the early 1990s, he pursued his education at both Chelsea College of Art and Goldsmiths College.

His artistic journey took a significant turn when he gained widespread recognition through his participation in the 1997 exhibition titled "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection," prominently featured at the Royal Academy of Art in London.

During a specific period in his artistic journey, Jason Martin ventured into the realm of mixed media, exploring the craft of crafting metal-cast sculptures. In his solo exhibition titled "Painting as Sculpture," hosted at the renowned Lisson Gallery in Milan in 2013, Martin introduced a captivating assortment of diminutive sculptures meticulously cast in nickel and copper. These masterpieces adeptly captured the fundamental qualities of paint, including its thickness, volume, and texture, all elegantly presented on a polished surface, challenging conventional distinctions between painting and sculpture.

Jason Martin has showcased his work in numerous solo exhibitions, including Schauwerk Sindelfingen Museum, Sindelfingen, Germany (2017), Pelaires Centre Cultural Contemporani, Palma, Mallorca, Spain (2016), Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (2009), Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Mallorca, Spain (2008), Centro Brasileiro Britânico, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2008), Kunstverein Kreis Gütersloh, Germany (2007), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2005).

Jason Martin's artistry has found its place within the esteemed collections of several prominent institutions, including the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, the Denver Art Museum, the Sammlung Essl in Vienna, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., among many others.

Jason Martin's Art Style

Jason Martin's artistic approach draws inspiration from both abstract expressionism and minimalism, with his creations centered on the essence of paint itself. He employs a unique technique, layering oil paint or acrylic gel onto a metal or Plexiglas surface. He then uses a comb-like instrument to meticulously sculpt voluminous striations through the material.

Jason Martin's paintings take shape as parallel layers, with their horizons delving into the realms of landscape and atmosphere. This effect is achieved through the varying viscosities of oil or the granular texture of additional materials blended into the paint. His technique, characterized by a series of sweeping and repeated gestures, has evolved and been refined since his time at Goldsmiths College in London.

In other instances, Martin departs entirely from the use of traditional paint and instead explores wall-mounted sculptures crafted from materials such as copper, bronze, and nickel. These pieces exhibit a lustrous yet static quality. In his works with pure pigment, vibrant hues are meticulously applied to molded panels, creating baroque contortions that resemble an intricate, extreme close-up of a painter's palette.

For instance, in his monumental 2006 piece titled "Vertigo," an oil painting on aluminum, he masterfully crafted soft and ethereal undulations that bring to mind the likeness of a billowing curtain or gentle waves. 

In his solo exhibition "Meta physical" at STPI, Jason Martin employed a captivating array of artistic techniques, including embossed relief, paper pulp manipulation, and paper casting. These methods allowed him to create artworks that possess a remarkable richness in texture and depth.