""I'm often trying to create a field of vision that simultaneously obfuscates visual readability (through disruptive patterns or using 'decoy' marks and colors) and directs attention in a very bold way. Like a zebra. I'm also interested in the way that the camouflage question overlaps with the process of [making] imagery that is inkjet printed and imagery that is painted. "--Jordan Martins
Plant Strategies, Jordan Martin's first solo exhibition at Goldfinch, features new paintings that build from Martins' ongoing Phenotypes, an ever-expanding series of monoprints that create a feedback loop between assemblages-photographs-collages-scans and inkjet prints, with the final output always being a unique archival pigment print. Martins' new paintings extend the feedback loop one step further; here, Martins builds off the imagery of the Phenotypes by printing images on canvas and then painting directly around and on top of the printed imagery, so that, in Martins' words, "the painting begins more in medias res than tabula rasa."
The forms and gestures that are present within these paintings also reflect Martins' interest in dazzle camouflage, strategies of conspicuous visuality, and the ways in which a painting might deploy or reflect them. "I'm often trying to create a field of vision that simultaneously obfuscates visual readability (through disruptive patterns or using 'decoy' marks and colors) and directs attention in a very bold way. Like a zebra. I'm also interested in the way that the camouflage question overlaps with the process of [making] imagery that is inkjet printed and imagery that is painted. At certain distances, it's difficult to tell what is what, i.e. is the paint camouflaging the digital-photographic process, or is the digital-photographic process camouflaging the paint?"
Martins' interest in deployments of masquerade and disguise led him to examine the plant strategies used to reproduce, adapt, survive, and compete in the landscape - an avenue of artistic inquiry that involve trade-offs in response to environmental pressures and changes. "My speculative interest in evolutionary biology and curiosity about drawing parallels to the visual dynamics of painting led me to this branch of botany, and it piqued my interest as a way to describe the behavior of paint on a surface. I'm thinking about it in a broader sense of how "painting" happens, but also in a very specific sense of how this body of work has developed: as I began the process of painting on pre-printed canvases, I've had to decide how I want the paint to behave or operate, and depending on how I decide to have it operate there is always some kind of trade-off: more paint means covering up more of the underlying digital image, and vice versa; using simple/declarative marks heightens the fact that the paint and the image are separate; using more integrated marks de-emphasizes the fact that they are separate."
Artist Bio:
Jordan Martins is a Chicago-based visual artist, curator, and educator. He received his MFA in visual arts from the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador, Brazil in 2007, and is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and North Park University. He is the executive director of Comfort Station, a multi-disciplinary art space in Chicago. Martins' visual work is based in collage processes, including painting, photography, video and installation, and he has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work has been featured in exhibitions at The Mission, Evanston Art Center, LVL3, The Franklin, The Museu de Arte da Bahia, Goldfinch, and Experimental Sound Studio. He was a resident in the Chicago Artists Coalition's HATCH program in 2013. Martins is co-director of the Perto da Lá, a biennial multi-disciplinary art event with international artists in Salvador, Brazil.
