Martin Esteves
October 17 - November 15, 2008
Schalter is pleased to announce Sticky Prism by New York based artist Martin Esteves. For this exhibition, Esteves has chosen to create a collage-like installation of his paintings as well as to treat the windows of the gallery with plastic films, creating a cathedral-like effect.
Martin Esteves uses acrylic paint to work on heavy plastic sheets. For many pieces, he layers his work in reverse, starting with the highlights first and ending with the application of the underlying forms. The finished painting then, is shown in reverse; either by turning the work around to reveal the brushstrokes behind the slick plastic surface, or the paint itself is peeled away from the plastic and hung directly on the wall. This technique is both a means to highlight the craftsmanship of the work and to simultaneously deflect or deflate its merit, allowing the viewer his or her own conclusions.
Within Esteves’ subject matter viewers are asked confront the familiar afresh. For example, we are offered an image of someone posing for a photograph; however the traditional dichotomy is reversed as the male diver in a full wetsuit acts as subject to a topless blonde whose body is turned away from our perspective. In another, what initially appears as a woman’s hair streams into stampeding horses. These tensions are similar to the ones implied by Esteves’ technique, where the crass confronts the sincere and the everyday and sacred touch the obscure and obscene, only to be turned inside out once again.
Martin Esteves lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His work has been shown throughout North America, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Since 2004, he has been represented in New York by Hudson Franklin. This is his first solo-exhibition in Germany.
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