Sam Martin utilises unconventional material such as hessian, coffee bags and hand-woven textiles to magnify the characteristics of the painting’s substrate and act as a site in which to explore painterly concerns such as repetition, occlusion, constraint, colour and improvisation.
Martin is interested in testing how different materials and surfaces influence the result of the gesture and how the image manifests itself over time from a series of incremental marks and decisions.
These works are an improvised collision of automatic scribbles, various ornamental patterns and single line motifs which could act as an imposter for something they’re not, whether it be a tapestry, an embroidery or a woven rug.
Photos by Taryn Ellis.
Sam Martin is born 1985, Melbourne, Victoria. Lives and works in Melbourne, Victoria.
Education: 2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) - Monash University, Caulfield 2008 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) - Monash University, Caulfield 2005 Diploma of Illustration - Chisholm TAFE, Frankston.
Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2019 Orbits, STATION, Melbourne; 2017 Specimen, Offering, Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne; Specimen, Part 1, STATION, Melbourne; 2016 Auckland Art Fair, w Tristian Koenig Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2015 We We Kojo, Tristian Koenig Gallery, Melbourne; 2015 Windows For Sheets, Caves Gallery, Melbourne; 2014 For The Problem Is No Longer, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne 2012 Crystalise Borders, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne; Selected Group Exhibitions; 2019 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery 2018 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Art Gallery; Support Structure, Latrobe Art Institute, Bendigo; Shantih, Shantih, Shantih, STATION, Melbourne 2017 Groupie, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney; Darebin Art Prize, Bundoora Homestead, Bundoora; Spring 1883 Art Fair, STATION, Sydney; 2016 Running Interference, curated by Kent Wilson, Rubicon, Melbourne; Elastic Field, curated by Laura Skerlj, Strange Neighbour, Melbourne; CODE Art Fair, w Tristian Koenig Gallery, Copenhagen, DK; Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne Picturesque, Palmer Art Projects, Sydney; Throwing Dirt at the Sun, Tristian Koenig Gallery, Melbourne; 2015 Churchie Emerging Art Award, Griffith University Art Gallery (GUAG), Brisbane; 2014 Incidents Above A Bar, Alderman Gallery, Melbourne; 2013 Mike Brown - BLOOP or HYPERTENSION CAN BE FUN !!!!!!, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne 2012 Museums in the Incident, Monash Faculty Gallery, Melbourne.
Awards: 2019 Sunshine Coast Art Prize (finalist); 2018 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (finalist) 2017 Darebin Art Prize (finalist).