JASON MARTIN – Vertex

Galleria Christian Stein enters its sixtieth year of activity (1966-2026) with a new exhibition of paintings by Jason Martin (Jersey, Great Britain, 1970), opening on Wednesday March 4th.
Vertex, the title of the second solo exhibition at the gallery, following his first show in 2023, presents a new body of work conceived specifically for the gallery’s spaces. The project is structured around a core group of six large-scale oil paintings, alongside two mixed-media paintings on aluminum.

Jason Martin’s artistic practice is grounded in a direct and physical engagement with the medium. The artist applies paint using non-conventional tools—such as blades, spatulas, and industrial combs—which allow him to incise, comb, and shape the pictorial surface with an almost sculptural gesture. The resulting works generate vibrant chromatic fields traversed by rhythmic textures that capture and refract light, multiplying perceptual variations. Martins’ aesthetic is distinguished by an intense and brilliant color palette, in fine dialogue with the natural light of the gallery overlooking the park of Palazzo Cicogna. The large paintings installed on the walls are striking not only for their unmistakable chromatic presence but also for their evocative titles, often alluding to mythological or spiritual dimensions: Alethia, Tantra, and Virgo.

Martin’s artworks occupy a double threshold: between painting and sculpture, due to their pronounced material and three-dimensional impact, and between abstraction and landscape. While maintaining within an abstract language, the surface suggests horizons or natural flows, evoking and almost atmospheric perception of space. This approach to abstraction engages and moves beyond the legacy of Franz Kline expressionism and Robert Ryman’s modernism – key reference for the artist during his years at Goldsmiths University of London.

With this exhibition, Galleria Christian Stein continues its commitment to presenting contemporary international artists alongside the historic visual figures that have shaped its identity, highlighting visual research practices that, starting from traditional artistic media, such as painting in the case of Jason Martin, profoundly renew their language.

The exhibition is accompanied by a critical text by Sergio Risaliti.