Solo Exhibition coming up November 25th at Artea Gallery in Milan

Stay tuned for more information!

Overtones/ Undercurrents opening at the Horace Williams House on November 5th

Stay tuned for more information!

Donald Martiny’s Master Strokes

“It took me a long time to feel like I actually owned my work,” says Donald Martiny, this week’s profile for Under the Radar. By which he means he spent many years looking for a voice that seemed to him genuinely, uniquely his. With a few exceptions—Carol Hepper, for example, who was making adventurous signature work in her twenties—many of the artists on this site spend years searching for that approach or style or process (whatever you choose to call it). And the decades of questing may not be as unusual as you think. When I interviewed El Anatsui a few years back on the occasion of his retrospective in Denver, I was surprised to find that much of his work was rather humdrum until he found the formula for making huge drop-dead gorgeous tapestry “sculptures” from discarded liquor-bottle seals. When his works became one of the hits of the 2007 Venice Bienniale, his star was launched—at age 63.

So too with Martiny, who worked for 25 years in the advertising business, always painting on the side. Now in his mid-sixties, he is showing in galleries across the country, has landed a prestigious commission from the new World Trade Center, and any minute now is on his way to oversee an installation in West Germany.

The lesson is simple: Hang in there. Good things can happen at any time. And if you want to really push the clichés: Better late than never.

Donald was interviewed by Ann Landi of Vasari 21.

Donald Martiny at work.

Taking Complementary Routes, Married Artists Donald Martiny and Celia Johnson Meet at the Crossroads of Color and Form

Donald Martiny, a renowned abstract expressionist artist who lives in Chapel Hill, is represented by galleries in the U.S., Europe, and Australia and is collected around the world. In 2015, two of his works were permanently installed at One World Trade Center. Too large to fit through the doors, they had to be created onsite while thousands of visitors watched.

For a more intimate view of Martiny's unique work, Triangle residents can visit Juxtaposition, a new exhibit with Celia Johnson, which runs at Artspace through October after an opening reception Friday night. Together, the married couple is creating a sprawling installation with a profound visual language.

Read the entire article, written by Linda Kramer, on IndyWeek.

Omotik, 2017

Polymer and pigment on aluminum, 89H x 48W