Eddie Martinez Whistles While He Works
Eddie Martinez
How does it feel to start a new painting? Filmed in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn studio, artist Eddie Martinez starts a large new painting while taking a break to walk his French bulldog Franny in his graffiti-clad neighborhood. Surrounded by an abundance of recently completed paintings, Martinez refers to these compositions while working on a new seven-by-ten foot canvas. Martinez uses black spray paint to make a quick sketch before introducing larger fields of saturated color and developing a densely textured surface.
Constantly moving and filling the studio’s silence with his own whistling, he impatiently makes marks and scrapes off paint before it’s had a chance to dry. Equating his very physical practice to that of a boxing ring, Martinez approaches his canvas like a fighter, rhythmically coming into contact and then stepping back from his opponent. Under his pet Franny’s affectionate gaze, Martinez is satisfied by the painting’s rapid progress at the end of the day, a testament to his ability to productively harness his anxiety and aggression in the studio.
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About the artists
Eddie Martinez was born in 1977 in Groton, Connecticut, and lives and works in New York. Having spent his adolescent years making graffiti, Martinez creates paintings on canvas that retain the rough, expressionistic lines and bold colors of street art. Working between representation and abstraction, he paints in oil, enamel, and spray paint while often incorporating found objects, in a fast-paced practice that could be compared to automatism. Noted for his deft draftsmanship, Martinez creates large-scale works that maintain the feeling of drawings. In addition to his paintings, Martinez creates found-object sculptures and works on paper.
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