Artists

Paul Martinson

BiographyworksExhibitions
Grey ghost

Grey ghost

9/05/2023 to 4/06/2023

Sanderson are pleased to present Grey Ghost - an exhibition of watercolours, oil and acrylic works by contemporary painter Paul Martinson.

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Huia

Huia

15/02/2022 to 13/03/2022

Recorded as one of the first birds to begin the extraordinary dawn chorus of Aotearoa - Huia are undeniably one of New Zealand's most iconic and cherished song birds.

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Moa

Moa

10/09/2019 to 29/09/2019

Aotearoa New Zealand was once home to nine species of moa. Despite millions of years of existence, their disappearance from fossil and archaeological records sadly coincided with the arrival of the first humans in the 14th century. The resulting destruction of moa habitat and human hunting was responsible for their rapid demise and extinction. Precisely how moa would have looked visually may always have a degree of speculation about it, just as we can never know for sure how dinosaurs appeared to an observer. In that sense this is very much collaboration of science and art.

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Animal Life

Animal Life

1/05/2018 to 20/05/2018

What makes a fish, a fish? Why is a light-bulb not a fish? How does a bird relate to a fish? These types of questions, although ridiculous on first reading, reveal a quest for epistemological knowledge, that is to say an appetite for the knowledge of knowledge itself. Martinson boasts a career as a research technician, committed to the science of nature, he asks questions to explain connections between seemingly disparate incidents of vitalism.

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Light Show

Light Show

20/06/2017 to 2/07/2017

Physics and natural science routinely underlie themes in Martinson's work. The light bulb, now an everyday object once sparked a quantum mechanical revolution when physicists puzzled over how electrical energy could transform into light waves. This moment lead to greater understanding of the true nature of reality and has become an essential part of Martinson’s practice.

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Sleep Walk

Sleep Walk

6/09/2016 to 25/09/2016

Martinson’s works are a rich tapestry of symbolism, from his anthropomorphic bird figures to the decaying threads that they wear. His works comment on our presence within time, and the fragility of life. This exhibition is a visual consideration of the artist’s observations of the natural world.

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Monarch

Monarch

30/06/2015 to 19/07/2015

An abiding interest in the surreal and the symbolic has seen Paul Martinson shift away from realism in search of a style that expresses the poetry of the human mind. While retaining a drawing-based figurative style, Martinson has embraced a personal, liberal approach to painting that allows a free flow of imagery and ideas.

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Flow

Flow

22/10/2014 to 15/11/2014

An abiding interest in the surreal and the symbolic has seen Paul Martinson shift away from realism in search of a style that expresses the poetry of the human mind. While retaining a drawing-based figurative style, Martinson has embraced a personal, liberal approach to painting that allows a free flow of imagery and ideas.

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Nonlocality

Nonlocality

10/04/2013 to 4/05/2013

An abiding interest in the surreal and the symbolic has seen Paul Martinson shift away from realism in search of a style that expresses the poetry of the human mind. While retaining a drawing-based figurative style, Martinson has embraced a personal, liberal approach to painting that allows a free flow of imagery and ideas.

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Electric Zoo

Electric Zoo

8/05/2012 to 20/05/2012

An abiding interest in the surreal and the symbolic has seen Paul Martinson shift away from realism in search of a style that expresses the poetry of the human mind. Electric Zoo demonstrates the artist’s personal, liberal approach to painting that allows a free flow of imagery and ideas, while retaining the drawing-based figurative style which has persisted throughout his career as a painter.

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Mellomania

Mellomania

14/09/2010 to 3/10/2010

Paul Martinson’s most recent work has a Gothic sensibility evoking concepts like death, evolution and mysticism. This aspect of the work derives in part from Martinson’s singular ability to paint light with a salient edge which is at once dark, brooding and ominous.

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A Freudian Slip

A Freudian Slip

6/10/2009 to 25/10/2009

Throughout his lifetime as a painter, Paul Martinson has based his art practice around his love and commitment to drawing, both conceptually and from life. This underlying aspect of his work, in combination with an enduring interest in biology, conservation and environmental issues, became the catalyst for paintings of birdlife for which he is known both locally and internationally.

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