Pearl Lam Galleries presents internationally renowned British artist Jason Martin’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Martin presents a new body of work where each painting has been named after one of the world’s most notorious or tyrannical dictators. Each has been composed in his signature style, using heavy impasto layers of oil paint tinted with vivid pure pigment.
Jason Martin exploded onto the global visual arts scene in the late 1990s in London as an active member of the ‘Young British Artist’ generation, who came to the world’s attention in the ground-breaking show Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, exhibiting alongside fellow ‘YBAs’ Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
Jason Martin pushes the boundaries of paint beyond the two-dimensional. Working on large surfaces of aluminium, the artist moulds, scrapes and gouges oils to create turbulent, worked surfaces, where the paint gains an almost sculptural quality in thickness and weight. The gesture of the artist is made visible with paint smoothed into tumultuous waves or sliced to reveal the shine of the metal beneath. The artist intensifies each work by using just one colour—rich purple, electric blues and lime green. Martin allows the material itself to become the subject of the work, the colour and the texture of the paint dominating the viewer’s experience.
The names used as titles for these works span across time and space, from ancient history to the Second World War, across Guatemala, Peru, Costa Rica, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam. Franco, the historic military leader of Spain who still remains Europe’s longest running political dictator, is here represented by one of the largest works in the show. At almost two metres wide, its bright blue dominates the room, drawing the viewer in to reveal its moulded surface.
Further works have been titled after Tojo, the Japanese Prime Minister responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour during the Second World War; Ataturk, the revolutionary statesman credited as the first President of Turkey; and Obregon, the Mexican President known for assassinating his predecessor. In the exhibition, Jezebel (2012) stands out as the only canvas to stray from the rectangular format with its curved shape representing the only female historical figure on display. Rather than being reduced by its more feminine form, Jezebel is the tallest work in the show, its deep magenta hue and sensual curves enticing the viewer. These names gain a mystical quality in their association with Martin’s work. The heavily worked surfaces are suggestive of emotion—in some comparable to scarring, yet in others the smooth texture soothing.
“Whether by democratic election or cultural reverie, nothing will stop us giving power to those ideologies that champion figureheads and appeal en masse. Our choices, or what we feel as our given rights, our liberty or freedom to pursue our own ideals, are key to a modern life in a very uncivilised world. And by those choices we empower leaders that appeal to our emotions, yet more significantly to our very concentrated prejudices.” Jason Martin, March 2013
Image: © Jason Martin, Pearl Lam Galleries
