Jason Martin

Jason Martin channels a minimal approach to painting through an expansive yet controlled use of colour, brush and medium. Working in pigment, acrylic, oil paint, graphite and cast metal, Martin interrogates the fundamentals of painting, veering from epic and luscious compositions of swirling forms (such as Oceania, 2006) to pared-down and muted abstractions in precisely blended tones. Structured according to the harmonic relationships between these hues (included in the titles, such as Davy's Grey Deep/Graphite Grey/Titanium White, 2017), the paintings manifest as parallel strata, their horizons exploring suggestions of landscape and atmosphere through the viscosity of oil or the granular texture of other material added to the paint. Albeit with the occasional intervention of chance, moments of happenstance and the unexpected whorl of chaos, this process of repeated, sweeping gestures has been honed over the years since Martin attended Goldsmiths College in London in the early 1990s. These early works saw Martin dragging skeins of oil or acrylic gel across hard surfaces such as aluminium, stainless steel or Plexiglas with a fine, comb-like tool.

Martin also does away with paint altogether in his wall-mounted casts of gold, rose gold and silver, whose surfaces are unctuous but frozen – fluctuating between sculpture and painting. In monochromatic, pure pigment works, vivid colour is applied to moulded panels, whose baroque contortions appear like extreme close-ups of a painter’s ridged and furrowed palette. Uniting his practice is an attempt to further the language of abstraction through discrete and measured interventions, which both disrupt and activate the surfaces and spaces he inhabits.

Jason Martin was born in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, in 1970 and lives and works between London and Portugal. He has a BA from Goldsmiths, London (1993). Solo exhibitions include Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Germany (2017); Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany (2016); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (2009); Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporary de Palma, Majorca, Spain (2008); Kunstverein Kreis Gŭtersloh, Gutersloh, Germany (2007); and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2005).

Jason Martin
Untitled (Permanent red)

2021
Mixed media on aluminium, Diameter: 143.5 x 14 cm / Diameter: 56 1/2 x 5 1/2 in

Jason Martin
Untitled (Dioxazine violet)

2020
Mixed media on aluminium 220 x 178 x 17 cm / 86 1/2 x 70 x 6 5/8 in

Jason Martin
Untitled (Coral pink)

2020
Mixed media on aluminium 88 x 72 x 10 cm / 34 5/8 x 28 1/4 x 3 7/8 in

Jason Martin
Untitled (Ultramarine blue)

2020
Mixed media on linen 166 x 170 x 22 cm / 65 1/4 x 66 7/8 x 8 5/8 in

Jason Martin
Untitled (Ultramarine blue / Cobalt turquoise / Cobalt green deep)

2019
Mixed media on aluminium, 69 x 57 x 10 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Zinc white / Royal blue light / French graphite grey)

2019
Oil on aluminium, 175 x 175 x 11 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Royal blue deep / Royal blue light)

2019
Oil on aluminium 51 x 51 x 9 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Cobalt blue deep / Cobalt violet deep / Graphite grey)

2019
Oil on aluminium, 220 x 180 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Cobalt blue deep / Stil de grain / Graphite grey)

2019
Oil on aluminium, 220 x 180 cm

Jason Martin
As Yet Untitled

2018
Mixed media on aluminium (Spinel Black), 125 x 125 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Scheveningen blue/ Zinc white)

2018
Oil on aluminium, 178 x 178 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Titanium white/ Prussian blue/ Scheveningen black)

2018
Oil on aluminium 178 x 178 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Zinc white / Scheveningen blue)

2018
Oil on aluminium, 178 x 178 x 12 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Mixed white / French Ardoise grey)

2018
Oil on aluminium, 178 x 178 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Cobalt blue deep / Graphite grey dark / Scheveningen black)

2018
Oil on aluminium, 245 x 204 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled Silver II

2017
DescriptionSilver 44 x 33 x 5 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled Silver III

2017
Silver 44 x 33 x 5 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled Silver IV

2017
Silver 44 x 33 x 5 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Ivory Black / Graphite Grey)

2017
Oil on aluminium, 68 x 58 x 11 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Titanium White / Neutral Tint)

2017
Oil on aluminium, 66 x 56 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled Silver I

2017
Silver 44 x 33 x 5 cm

Jason Martin
Odyssée

2015
Gold, 49.5 x 33.5 x 8 cm

Jason Martin
Untitled (Ebony)

2015
Ebony silver, 40 x 30 x 6.5 cm

Jason Martin
Jarrow

2014
Mixed media (Alizarin Violet), 176 x 160 cm

Jason Martin
Verdade

2013
Mixed media on panel, 68 x 60 x 12 cm

Jason Martin
Amore

2013/2016
Rose gold, 41.5 x 32.5 x 7.5 cm

Jason Martin
As Yet Untitled

2010
Oil on aluminum, 173 x 173 cm

Jason Martin
Pulse

2007
Oil on stainless, 173 x 173 cm

Jason Martin
Fell

2006
Oil on aluminium, 130 x 200 cm

Jason Martin

Exhibitions