DAVID MARTIN  LEXICOGRAPHER/ARTIST

David Martin new paintings   'Additive Abstraction' at the Modern Artists Gallery  13 October - 6 November 2007

David Martin explores 'language lines'; those lines which once shaped handwritten words are denuded of their linguistic holding and recast as pure visual imagery. 
Through the interweaving of colour and line he creates an intricate richness of geometric planes filled with a near baroque exuberance.  Much of the inspiration for this, he acknowledges, comes from Irish illuminated manuscripts, most in evidence in his work Bog Latin.

Born in Los Angeles in 1968, David Martin, when not painting, is an editor on the Oxford English Dictionary.  Language and expression of 'meaning' dominate his work.

'I am interested in that borderland where language falters and painting takes the lead; where there is no air for words, where pure image and emotion reign, and the ineffable mystery of our existence, with any luck, become less obscured.'

Artist and Lexicographer  Risk all for Abstract Art

Additive Abstraction A seminal exhibition of abstract paintings by the artists Paul Kessling and David Martin will run from the 13th of October for two weeks at the Modern Artists Gallery Pangbourne, Berkshire

Additive Abstraction is an exhibition by two artists seeking “truth” not only in their paintings but also in the context of that great question: How should one live?
Kessling, an accomplished landscape painter, and Martin, an editor on the Oxford English Dictionary, resolved to dedicate themselves to the abstract in painting; this exhibition charts their respective journeys.

Taking the grounds of Rembrandts self-portraits as his starting point, Kessling uses large and exposed brush strokes of expressive power arranged with sculptural directness to create totemic icons of intelligent colours. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Kessling has recently achieved a record price for his painting at Christies.

Martin, born in Los Angeles, explores the simple “language line”, the lines that shape handwritten words denuded of their linguistic holding and recast as pure visual imagery.
Taking inspiration from his passion for James Joyce, Martin has accomplished a synthesis of idea and image; a kind of visual poetry in the abstract.