Background

Jason Martin was born on September 8, 1970, in Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom.

Education

Jason Martin studied at Chelsea College of Arts from 1989 to 1990 and received there a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design.

After graduating from the College, Martin pursued his studies at Goldsmiths’ College where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1993.

Career

Jason Martin started his career in the 1990s. During this period of time, the artist focused on the visual aspect rather than on the spiritual one. The canvases of the period referred to Color Field painting, Bram Bogart’s impasto reliefs, and several late works of Jules Olitski.

Since then, Martin has experimented with mixed media, like pigment, acrylic, oil paint, graphite and cast metal and has exhibited the results of his experiments throughout the United States and Europe, including Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice Biennale, Centro de Arte Contemporàneo de Malaga, Spain, as well as various art spaces in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Finland. Since 2012, his art is represented in Finland by Galerie Forsblom.

Nowadays, Jason Martin shares his time between London and Portugal where he has two art studios, the one in the village of Melides for mixed media works, and the other not far from Comporta reserved for painting in oils.

Achievements

• Follower of the Young British Artists, Jason Martin has managed to develop the language of Abstract Expressionism using in his painting practice measured but expressive gestures to animate the monochromatic surfaces which became widely recognized around the world.
  
  Martin’s artworks are acquired by many prestigious collections, both private and public, including Saatchi Gallery, Denver Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Malaga, Museum of Contemporary Art, Salzburg, Austria, the art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac, as well as in art spaces and galleries in Germany, Italy, France, and Finland.
  
  Martin has been a recipient of John Moores 21 Prize at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Premio del Golfo at Biennale Europea di Arti Visive (European Biennial of Visual Arts) in La Spezia, Italy.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Untitled

  • As Yet Untitled

  • Untitled (Plate III)

  • Vigilante

  • Chillequille

  • Untitled (Plate II)

  • Trench

  • Untitled (Plate I)

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Meta

  • Untitled

  • Titanium white shade

  • Vertigo

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Fairouz

  • Untitled Silver IV

  • El Capitán

  • Untitled II

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Apocalipse

• sculpture

  • Untitled

  • Untitled Bronze Tondo

Views

Quotations: "I’ve always viewed myself as a landscape painter dressed up as an abstractionist. I respond to nature and makes studies on the sly which I’ve never shown. And when you look at my works, you gaze into this imaginary space beyond and project associations from your own mental landscape on it. To me figuration and abstraction are beautifully intertwined."

"I’ve reduced the methodology of how I make oils. If you don’t confine yourself to a set of rules, you can’t make value judgments about the direction of your work."

"I don’t think minimal living fits with the complexity of life – unless you live like a monk."