Jason Martin b. 1970
“I think the unconscious is what drives meaning…it creates possibilities of image making. I give myself over to that, I make myself a passive-receptacle or a vessel or a tool.”
– Jason Martin
Artist Biography
Jason Martin (b. 1970, Jersey, Channel Islands, based in London, United Kingdom) is known for his raw engagement with painting. Viewing the medium as a realm that can be explored endlessly, Martin draws on the elements of colour, shape and texture to create highly tactile, pigmented compositions that merge the visual languages of abstraction and landscape painting. His paintings recall gestural and monochrome tendencies in Modernist practices, evoking a sense of movement and transformation.
Since the start of his career in the early 1990s, Martin’s process-based approach has combined diverse methods of manipulating paint across different material supports such as plexiglass and stainless steel. Works like Lover (1997) and Vertigo (2006) feature layers of oil and acrylic being dragged across the surface with a comb-like tool the artist invented himself, creating linear patterns that appear to undulate. In 2012, he began incorporating his painterly language to sculptural reliefs and freestanding forms, creating cast metal works like Zocalo (2013) and Anathema (2013) where solid materials such as bronze and nickel take on elaborate contortions with a fluid appearance.
Martin obtained his BFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1993, rising to prominence as part of the Young British Artists during that time. His work is held in major collections including Buffalo AKG Art Museum; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga; Denver Art Museum; Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Institut Valencià d'Art Modern; Jersey Museum, Channel Islands; Museum of Contemporary Art, Salzburg; Museum of Modern Art, La Spezia; Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg; Espoo Museum of Modern Art; and Sprengel Museum, Hannover.
Notable solo exhibitions include Works 1997-2017 (2017), Schauwerk Sindelfingen; Traction (2016), Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf; Swear To God (2016), Pelaires Centre Cultural Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca; Nomad (2008), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga; and Nomad (2008), Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma.The artist has also participated in numerous international festivals including Trace (1999) 1st Liverpool Biennial; and Premio del Golfo (2000), European Biennial of the Visual Arts, La Spezia.
Martin had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2016, resulting in the exhibition Meta physical (2019).