Jason Martin
L. A. Louver Venice, California ARTnews, February 2001
To create his imposing, sometimes panoramic paintings, the British artist Jason Martin-one of the Goldsmith and "Sensation" gang-resorts to the simplest and most basic of all artists' means, the singular mark: a one-time, rhythmic, muscular gesture against a generous application of viscous, monochromatic oil or acrylic medium on the hard surface of aluminum, perspex, or steel. Using an oversized draft excluder as a "brush," Martin works the medium with vigorous, whole-body motion, and the scored surfaces combine the spontaneous immediacy of a child's fingerpainting with the sophisticated gestural authority of a Jackson Pollock.
The resulting paintings have a sculptural quality despite their clear relationship with the gallery's white wall. Large paintings, like the 8 by 12 foot "Soliloquy," work like proscenium arches, where the massive, curtain-like folds draw us into the internal drama of their own creation. Ec-static themselves, they will not allow us to stand still, and our movement is an active element in bringing them to life: colors-which seem chosen for their sometimes intense, sometimes metallic artificiality-shift and change, and the light reflects, darting and shimmering across the surfaces. The medium congeals in wave-like crests and trenches, drawing the eye into the detail of quasi-baroque curlicues, of sudden encrustations, or transparent streaks where the underlying support gleams through the paint. The further we move, the more the work reveals of itself to our attention.
Each of these paintings is a high stakes, physical tour de force, a singular event in which everything must come together perfectly or all be lost. For this reason the works have an edgy, even vertiginous quality that contrasts pleasingly with their huge scale and solid presence. Combining the playful flash and dazzle of Op Art with the gestural spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism and the physical immediacy of action painting, Martin has come up with a welcome fresh approach that exudes the joy of pure creative energy.
