Corcoran Presents Chris Martin: Painting Big

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This summer, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design will present Chris Martin: Painting Big, Martin's first one-artist museum exhibition and the first exhibition of his work in Washington, D.C.  Spanning three spaces in the Gallery, the exhibition includes large-scale paintings commissioned for the Corcoran's Atrium, a focused selection of work from the past nine years, and in the Corcoran's Rotunda through August 28, a dense assemblage of small paintings from the last 25 years.  Chris Martin: Painting Big is the second exhibition in the Gallery's NOW at the Corcoran series, a contemporary program dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and mid-career artists. It is curated by Sarah Newman, curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran.

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Painting Big explores Martin's complex insertion of everyday life into art and art into everyday life. His works are tactile and stitched-together, incorporating found objects and collage into their abstract geometries and rhythmic patterns. In many, Martin integrates objects from his immediate environment, including kitchen utensils, records, photographs, and Persian carpets, into their colorful surfaces. According to Newman, "Martin's paintings are often quite literally big, in the sense that many of his canvases are towering fields of color and pattern, yet they are also big in concept and in spirit, incorporating the gamut of experience, from personal memories to James Brown to the sublime. Although his paintings are lush and playful on the surface, they are embedded with traces of private stories and layers of history."

A highlight of the exhibition, the Atrium installation dramatizes the play between art and life, serving as a monumental painted environment for the activities of Corcoran visitors. Originally from Washington, D.C., Martin grew up visiting the Corcoran. His memories of seeing ambitious sculptural installations have inspired his ideas for this exhibition, and his paintings directly engage the architecture and history of the Gallery.  

Growing up in Washington, Martin recalls visiting the Corcoran as a teenager, finding inspiration in masterworks such as George Inness' Harvest Moon, as well as the avant-garde, large-scale sculptural installations that inspired his own work in the Corcoran's Atrium.  Martin's exhibition at the Corcoran represents a coming home for the artist and celebrates the history as well as the future of both the artist and the Corcoran.

NOW at the Corcoran continues with Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro: Are We There Yet? (December 3, 2011 – March 11, 2012).

Chris Martin: Painting Big is made possible through the support of the Women's Committee of the Corcoran and Steven M. Sumberg.

Media Contacts:
Kristin Guiter, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing,
[email protected], (202) 639-1867

Rachel Cothran, Manager of Public Relations,
[email protected], (202) 639-1833

Media Center: www.corcoran.org/press

SOURCE Corcoran Gallery of Art