Filed under: Review | Tags: Brian Fee, Chris Martin, Mitchell-Innes & Nash
There are several protocols to bear in mind before experiencing a Chris Martin exhibition. Take your preconceived notions of mixed-media painting and color combinations and chuck them out the window. Martin’s bold color choices are exceeded only by the media itself receiving the paint, which could be “just” canvas or an entire Oriental rug to the tabloid newspapers appearing here, his third solo show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Brian Fee, Austin Contributor
Chris Martin | Bus Maniac, 2008-11, oil and collage on canvas, 54” x 45 1/8”
Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash
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Filed under: Art World, DC | Tags: Chris Martin, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Matthew Smith, Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Chris Martin. ABOVE: Here Comes the Sun…, 2004–2007. Oil on canvas, 143 x 129 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York. Photo: Jason Mandella. BOTTOM: Staring into the Sun… (4→7→11), 2003. Oil on canvas, three parts, 143 x 129 inches each. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
It’s easy to see Chris Martin’s interest in outsider art. In fact, it’s often written directly onto his work. A close inspection of the collaged paintings in his monumental installation in the Corcoran Gallery’s atrium yields, among other things, a newspaper clipping noting the death of Purvis Young, arguably the quintessential outsider artist. Other works by Martin, many of them installed in the Corcoran’s rotunda, have textual references to artists who were decidedly insiders but whose works alluded to an outsider’s sensibility — artists like Paul Thek and Alfred Jensen. This second category — the insider with an outsider’s sensibility — is particularly relevant to Chris Martin’s work in Painting Big, on view at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. through October 23.
—Matthew Smith, DC Contributor
