Heather Gwen Martin
FLYING COLORS
Curated by Dion Johnson
Rema Ghuloum | Dion Johnson | Pamela Jorden Heather Gwen Martin | Michael Reafsnyder
On view through June 11, 2021
Contemporary Art Matters is pleased to present Flying Colors, a group show curated by Dion Johnson featuring five painters from Southern California: Rema Ghuloum, Pamela Jorden, Heather Gwen Martin, Michael Reafsnyder, and Dion Johnson. The show will be on view through June 11, 2021. For more information on the exhibition, related events and forthcoming catalog, please contact us at info@contemporaryartmatters.
Heather Gwen Martin’s paintings walk the line between deliberation and spontaneity. Dissolving any sense of objectivity, the artist avoids preconceptions, allowing her compositions to materialize with immediacy, experimentation, and improvisation.
Martin’s paintings begin as intense, physical endeavors, which she later hones with touch, strength, and control. Each canvas is proportional to the artist’s body: the smallest relating to her head and the largest to her full body and arm span. Elegant lines, precise brushwork, and a vibrant color palette are signature elements of her work, which she makes entirely by hand, employing the traditional materials of oil paint and linen.
Heather Gwen Martin is based in Los Angeles, California. Born in 1977 in Saskatchewan, Canada, Martin studied at the University of California, San Diego and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her large mural “Landing,” is currently on view as part of the public art project Murals of La Jolla in La Jolla, CA. Martin shows with L.A. Louver in Los Angeles and Miles McEnery Gallery in New York, and looks forward to an upcoming solo exhibition at L.A. Louver, opening May 2021. Heather’s work has also been shown in group museum exhibitions such as “Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century,” Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, “The Agency of Art,” University Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, and “Intersecting at the Edge,” Claremont Museum of Art, Claremont, CA. Her work is included in the permanent collections of Equinor Art Collection, Houston, TX; Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, MO; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; and Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH.