Thavibu Gallery | Contemporary Art from Thailand, Vietnam and Burma |
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Martin Collins
Martin Collins
is a British artist, (b. 1964)
with an international
trajectory as a painter and mixed media artist – with solo
shows in England Spain, New York and Thailand. He is based
in Bangkok for a decade and draws on Thai imagery and events
to present powerfully charged large-scale 'photo-paintings'
– archival photo-prints up to two meters in height in
limited editions. Collins's
deeply layered and sumptuously colored prints have real
physical presence or visual weight - the results of the long
process in their making, which in the case of key works may
be modified over months or even years. He begins working by
combining selections from his 'beauty collection'- the
thousands of still photos taken on regular walks exploring
the neighborhoods near his Bangkok home, fishing for beauty:
His 'catches'
are then carefully edited and printed as
photo 'singles'
and are beautiful artworks in their own right. He sees the
city as any animist would: it is a prescient entity
expressing itself in lovely 'moments'
or
brief, efflorescence. Yet that is not the end of the
process... Gradually he starts to associate or contrast
certain works in his mind, then 'physically'
in Photoshop,
and, slowly they gather more layers and personality. Then he
starts a period of printing and tonal and color correction.
He uses No 'computer generation'
or 'painting'
from the
paintbrush, spray or pencil tools. He is not a 'digital'
artist, but a painter using photographic tools resulting in
solid-state artworks.
The
Seven Forms of Ambiguity of the show title refers to
William Empson's seminal work on poetic imagery in 1930 –
yet until now a careful study of visual power, or repeatable
'language' is still lacking in the visual arts. Ambiguity
is the key to 'projection', as in the state of visual
doubt we are sucked in by curiosity, and our brains, create
a solution: a creative leap! Collins says: "These
catalysts, or dynamos we call ambiguities are vital for both
the artist to lose himself in the making of the work, and as
a portal for viewers to enter and explore within the artwork
with eyes and senses and for them to flood the artwork with
their emotions. I aim for an art like Shakespeare's:
accessible, flexible, yet which can shake a mass audience
'warmly by the throat' by sheer beauty, and is able to
delight both mind and senses, to surprise, amaze or state
truths in equal measure"・
| All works are photo lambda prints
on professional photo (archival) paper |
| The prints come in three sizes
and three different editions. |
| Please contact the gallery for
details:
info@thavibu.com |
Gallery 1 | 2
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