Jason Martin: Polychrome Futures

The Buchmann Galerie is delighted to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Jason Martin (b. 1970, UK).

Since February 2020, Jason Martin has dedicated himself to working on the preparation and development of this new series of paintings. This group of works marks an important shift in the artist’s practice: He returns to the paintbrush, but for the first time uses a versatile colour palette in different hues and tones to create paintings of immense depth and space.

Looking at the polychrome paintings one journeys into something that begins on the surface, but which then pulls you in deeper and deeper, opening into an unfathomable space beyond. One reaches a surprising, almost figurative reality inside the painting, much like looking into a blazing fire, swirling water or ice. The lateral movement of the brushwork supports the multi-layered play of colours in the more translucent paintings, while others retain an opaqueness.

In these paintings, Jason Martin decisively pushes the boundaries further. He expresses his view on the new works in a personal note:

“Some fundamental essentials in my practice prior to 2013 have now been revisited after a seven-year hiatus, the year I abandoned working with a brush.
Of course a brush can have many identities and as a working tool can be shaped to meet specific ends specifically when exploring the potential of an arm-led reach that expands typical perceived norms tracing scale and the relationship to the body.
My brushes often attempt a furthering of an extended linear striation or as I consider - The meta stroke.

A flow of gestural possibility that furthers pre-conceived and more familiar explorations in painterly gesture that in particular leave testimony to the extended reach of the body. […] Breaking away from perspectival illusory space as would a topographical painter if depicting views of nature, I have continued to challenge where an imaginary space couples with an unmediated sensory stimulation.”

Works by Jason Martin are represented in many important private and public collections, including in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, USA, the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Schaufler Foundation Schauwerk Sindelfingen, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna.