Madison Gallery presents Donald Martiny’s third solo exhibition, SINGULARFORMS. The title refers to the singular form defined by the physicality and the intimacy between the work and artist. Martiny creates a gap between painting and sculpture and rejects the two-dimensional canvas or panel to establish a relationship between space and viewer. These paintings are not layered but mixed into one form; they are dynamic, complex and very personal.
“I want my paintings to possess their own life force, their own “breath of life.” I want to offer an intimate, engaging, and authentic experience between the viewer and the artwork. Additionally, I work hard to create work that has a dialogue with the history of painting but at the same time is not beholden to it.” - Donald Martiny.
Martiny’s work concentrates on the importance of the brushstroke as a real means of connection between artist and material. The artist employs pigments, polymer and gallons of paint, sometimes between 30-40 at a time, to create the right color and viscosity to produce each individual composition. He never thinks of, or use color in a political or symbolic way, nor does he approaches color in a scientific or theoretical way like say Goethe, Chevreul, Itten, or Albers. He experiences painting as pushing and moving pure sensation and feeling, i.e., joy, tragedy, tenderness, affection, love, passion, energy, ardor. More than an exploration of optics or beauty his use of color is a kind of spiritual quest.
Martiny’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums, including the Fort Worth Museum of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, Alden B Dow Museum of Art, Falmouth Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art and the Cameron Art Museum. In 2015 Martiny received a commission from the Durst Organization to create two monumental paintings that are permanently installed in the lobby of One World Trade Center in New York City. In 2015 Martiny received the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts Residency Grant and his work has been featured in the Huffington Post, NPR, Philadelphia Inquirer, VOGUE LIVING | Australia, New American Paintings | South and Woven Tale Press.
Read more about the exhibition here.
solo Exhibition: Singular Forms at Madison Gallery, May 25th, 2019
