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JASON MARTIN

b. 1970, Jersey, Channel Isands, UK

Lives and works in London, UK and Melides, Portugal

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Jason Martin studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was a participant in the legendary 1997 exhibition “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection” at the Royal Academy in London and the Museum Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.

 

Known for his thickly textured, monochromatic paintings which achieve uniquely sculptural surfaces, Martin layers oil paint or acrylic gel atop a metal or Plexiglas substrate, and then drags a comb-like tool through the substance to create voluminous striations. The process-based formalism of his practice shows the influence of artists such as David Budd and Robert Ryman. “The most interesting abstraction has a source of figuration,” he reflected. “My approach is that there is a warmth of figuration that I try to affect into the movements—gestures—that I make [on the canvas].”

 

Jason Martin’s work is held in international private and public collections, including The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna, and more.