Information - scroll down this page for contact information, e-mail list, current shows, artist statement and resume.

Martin is based in the San Francisco East Bay Area, California.

Phone : 510-684-4492

E-Mail List : To recieve news on shows etc, please send an "Add to e-mail list" message to martin @quicksandstudio.com.

Current shows

Esteban Sabar Gallery, Oakland, CA www.estebansabar.com

A New Leaf Gallery, Sonoma, CA www.sculpturesite.com

Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto, CA www.terceragallery.com

InArt Gallery, Santa Fe, NM www.inartsantafe.com

Statement

Growing up in England, I experienced the natural and urban American landscapes second-hand through the media, especially movies and TV, and they always seemed rich with drama, symbolism, myth, and folklore. Now, as an artist experiencing them first hand, I have become fascinated with the scale, the diversity, the rawness, and especially the unresolved interface between the man-made and the natural.

Travelling this landscape has led to some narrative elements developing in my work. Some pieces are a visual record of a specific journey, or rather the emotional memory of one. Others are more like abstract snapshots of a certain place and moment. This narrative and passage of time may be on a brief, personal scale, or it may relate to the slow evolution of a landscape, or both. That state of flux is what interests me – that places and objects are always gathering their own stories, that change is always happening on all scales at all times, and that nature always bats last.

The pieces recall the natural world, the organic, the geological, the biological, the micro and the macroscopic view. They always include elements of the man made – geometry, text, symbols, or found objects to create a dialogue and connection between he two worlds. Figures in the pieces are ambiguous forms that echo poses, gestures and presences that are familiar. Like other symbols in my vocabulary, they remind and reflect feelings and experiences in the artist and the viewer.

I work with cement because it has its own life as a material. Paint records the artist’s actions but concrete will do its own thing – I can manipulate it but it fights back. I get to choose to what degree “the hand of the artist” is seen. My medium of choice for a long time was watercolor which seems polar opposite to concrete yet they share a similar delicacy of color and richness of surface, and the same “on the edge of control” looseness and element of surprise in their execution. What concrete adds is its substance and physicality – a monumental presence. You can also make sidewalks from it – it’s very democratic.

Practical note

In spite of being cement, these pieces are much lighter than they appear and can be hung like a substantial painting in most conventional situations. The materials are extremely durable and all the coloring processes involved are stable and lightfast in outdoor and indoor locations.

Resume

E X H I B I T I O N S

2008. Solo show. DiPietri Todd, San Francisco, CA.
2008. Solo show. Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto, CA.
2008. A New Leaf Gallery, Sonoma CA.
2008. Solo show “Best Western”. Esteban Sabar Gallery Oakland, CA.
2007. Group show. Inart Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2007. Group show. Esteban Sabar Gallery, Oakland CA.
2007. Group show. Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto, CA.
2007. Solo and group show, Truckee River Gallery, Reno, NV.
2007. Permanent exhibition, A New Leaf Gallery, Sonoma CA.
2007. “Passengers” solo show,Float Gallery, Oakland, CA.
2006. Sausalito Arts Commission, “Ebb and Flow” juried show, Sausalito CA.
2006. Group Show. Float Gallery, Oakland, CA.
2006. Solo show Venus, Berkeley CA.
2006. “Geometrical Deconstructions” group show, California Modern Gallery, San Francisco CA,.
2005. Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2005. ANL Gallery, Sonoma, CA.
2004. “New Works” show, A New Leaf Gallery, Berkeley CA.
2004. “Dwelling” show juried by Steven Oliver, A New Leaf Gallery, Berkeley CA.
2003. “Novo” show, A New Leaf Gallery, Berkeley, CA.
2002. Halcyon, Sheffield.
2000-02. Cupola Gallery, Sheffield.
2000. Benicia Arts, Benicia CA.
1999. Arts Benicia juried show, Benicia, CA
1991. Bretton Hall College, Wakefield.
1986. Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster.

C O M M I S S I O N S A N D S P E C I A L P R O J E C T S

2008. Commission by Simon Devpts and City of Santa Rosa CA. Piece approximately 40x15 ft to be inset into pedestrian walkway. To be installed October 2008.
2007. City of Walnut Creek, exterior wallpieces commissioned for The Mercer Building. Installed 2008.
2006. Novartis pharmacuticals, US Corporate Headquarters lobby, New Jersey. September 2006 purchase of “Constellation” triptych and “Brownian” diptych.
2004 – 2006. Multiple private commissions for interior and exterior pieces in the USA and UK.

P U B L I C A T I O N S

July 2008. "The Oakland Period - Reused, Recycled and Found Materials Define an Art Movement" article by Alex Handy. Oakland Magazine.
March 2005. “A New Leaf Gallery –an urban cultural oasis”, gallery retrospective,
Brigitte Micmacker and John Denning.
June 2003. “The new school of decorative concrete”, article by Michael Miller and
Kelley Burnham, Concrete International magazine.

E D U C A T I O N

Post Graduate Certificate in Education – High School Art and Design Technology. Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds, 1991.
Bachelor of Arts Honors - Visual Arts, Lancaster University, 1986. Special studies in drawing, painting and illustration.
DATEC Diploma in Art and Design, West Nottinghamshire College, 1983.

R E P R E S E N T A T I O N

Currently represented by galleries in Oakland CA, Sonoma CA, Palo Alto CA, and Santa Fe NM.