Jason Martin
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De Brock Gallery is very pleased to announce its third solo exhibition with Jason Martin. Yes indeed, we have a long history together. The first time I was confronted with Jason’s large sublime oil paintings was at the “Sensation” exhibition in London back in 1997. We were introduced and since then we’ve met numerous times, at Lisson, art fairs, studio visits, in London and Comporta, sometimes discussing various topics long into the night.

Jason is a gifted painter but also passionate when speaking of his unconditional hunger for painting. In this show, he continues to explore the possibilities within the act of painting itself using all means available. A series of decisions have to be made on the level of the support to be used, the paint, its thickness, the application, the color, the texture, the gesture. There is a fine paradoxal line between the precision needed to achieve the elegant and smooth compositions and the sometimes exuberant, expressionist way of working on the paintings.

In this last series, Jason continues to work through thick layers of pigment in irregular horizontal striations spanning the width of the panel. The different bands of paint meet, offering landscape references and a sheer physicality. The dialogue that the artist creates between the works throughout the exhibition rooms is stunning and expansive.

The paintings are almost sculptural and confront the viewers with the essence of painting in a more than captivating way. Above all, though, behind the candour of these paintings we feel a depth and a serious profoundness that put these works onto the grand historical stage of Minimalist Painting.