Julian Martin

Julian Martin (born Melbourne 1969) is an Australian artist, known primarily for his pastel drawings and self-portraits. Martin resides in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster, and has worked from his Northcote-based studio at Arts Project Australia since 1989, where he has also had numerous solo shows. He has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally [see Exhibitions] and in 1994 he was a finalist in the prestigious Moët & Chandon Travelling Fellowship. In 2014 he was the winner of the Australian State Trustees Connected art prize. His work is held in several public collections, including the Deakin University Art Collection, the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection and Monash University Museum of Art.
Early life and education
Martin was diagnosed with autism at the age of two and was supported and encouraged by his parents, who claimed that his diagnosis had ‘cemented’ their family and that he showed signs of ‘promise.’ He attended a program for special-needs children, but did not start making art until approximately the age of ten. During his time at an autism-specific school, which he attended for several years, he “won a minor art prize,” however the early promise identified by his parents was not realised until 1989, when an instructor at the Adult Day Centre at which Martin attended recognised his artistic talent. Shortly thereafter he began working at Arts Project Australia, an organisation devoted to supporting and promoting artists with an intellectual disability. Although Martin received no formal training, his participation in the studio program at Arts Project Australia gave him access to fine art materials and the informal tuition provided by the practicing artists employed by the organisation. It was one such artist who, in the early 1990s, suggested the use of a mirror as a drawing aid, which eventually led to the development of his signature depictions of mask-like faces executed in pastel. These early works were exhibited in Martin's first solo show, entitled Pastel Drawings at the Australian Galleries in Collingwood, Melbourne.
Career, themes and style
Both Martin's lack of formal training and autism have identified him as one of the key figures within the Outsider Art category in Australia. This categorisation is confirmed by his repeated inclusion in Outsider Art exhibitions and fairs, both in Australia and in the USA. However, in recent years his work has also achieved success in more conventional art institutions and Alex Baker, former curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Victoria has likened his works to those of American Abstract artists of the 1930s and 1940s such as Adolph Gottlieb, William Baziotes and Ad Reinhardt, claiming that they are similarly characterised by “pictographic, biomorphic and hard-edged abstraction.”
A highly prolific artist whose works number in the hundreds and are stored in the archival collection of Arts Project Australia, Martin's work has developed from early abstracted monochrome figures and profiles into a practice which combines source material found in newspapers and magazines with the bold, flattened geometric repetition of form that has become his “signature style.” Recent works are drawn from mainly photographic and physical sources ranging from depictions of Hollywood celebrities, politicians and sports stars to an eclectic range of kitchen utensils, tools, letters and logos. The expansion of subject matter in recent work has been accompanied with a more textural and layered use of the familiar pastel medium - Baker notes the use of etching implements to create works which are “abraded, scoured and pitted,” stating that they stand as “testimony to the artist’s vigorous process.”
Solo exhibitions
Julian Martin Solo, No Vacancy Project Space, Melbourne, 2015
Julian Martin: Transformer, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2014
Julian Martin New Work, Kitty Somerset, Northcote, 2011
Draw, Manningham Gallery, Melbourne, 2009
Julian Martin Recent Works, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2006
New Works, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2003
Sempiternal Variations, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2001
Pastel Drawings, Australian Galleries, Collingwood, 1995
Selected group exhibitions
Here and Now, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, Melbourne, 2016
Measurably Long Kool, Fleisher Ollman, Philadelphia, USA, 2016
Paper Projects, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 2016
The Outsider Art Fair 2015, (Fleisher/Ollman booth), New York, USA, 2016; 2015; 2014; 2009
The Salon, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, 2015
Down The Rabbit Hole, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2015
Connected, Yarra Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2014; 2010; 2009; 2003–2007;1999
Everyday imagining: new perspectives on Outsider art, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 2014
Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 2014; 2012; 2010; 2008; 2006; 2004; 2002; 2000
6° of Separation, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2014
Renegades: Outsider Art, Moree Plains Gallery, Moree, NSW, 2014
National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2014; 2000; 1998
Animal Magnetism, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2014
Renegades: Outsider Art, The Arts Centre Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, QLD, 2014
The Armory Show, (Fleisher/Ollman booth), New York, USA, 2014
Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, 2014
Chicago Expo: Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Chicago USA,2013
Renegades: Outsider Art, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns QLD, 2013
Outsiderism, Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia, USA, 2013
At the Table, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne, 2013
Halo and the Glory of Art, McGlade Gallery, ACU Sydney, 2012
Paint It Black, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2012
Exhibition #4, Museum of Everything, London, 2011
Colour My World, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2011
Hidden, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2010
Myscape, Trongate & Collins Gallery, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland, 2010
Snapshot, ACGA Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2009
Pictures of You, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2009
Alan Constable & Julian Martin, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 2009
Pearls of Arts Project Australia, Stuart Purves Collection, NSW, 2009; 2008; 2007
Lets Get Lost, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
In Everyone’s Company, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2006
Australian Outsiders, Jack Fischer Gallery, California, USA, 2006
Leo Cussen with Selected Artists, Australian Galleries, Collingwood, 2005
South of the Border, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2005
Dealer’s Choice, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, USA, 2005
2nd Annual Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, Chicago, United States, 2005, New York
Visual Disobedience, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2005
A Sense of Place, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2003
Fair Game, NGV Response Gallery, Melbourne, 2003
Headspace, National Neuroscience Facility, Melbourne, 2003
Suburban Dreamers, Moore's Building, Fremantle, 2002
Art of the Sacred Heart, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, 2001
Face-Up, Idiom Studio, Wellington, New Zealand, 2001
Histoires de vivre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2000
Arterial - artists from Arts Project Australia, Paralympic Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, 2000
On Track, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
Artists from Arts Project Australia, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Sydney, 1999
Nillumbik Art Award, Melbourne, 1999
La Femme, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 1999
Bazaar, Pitspace, RMIT, Bundoora, 1998
Knock Knock group show, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 1997
Prints and Artists Books, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 1997
Drawing on Experience: Reflections on Popular Culture (National touring exhibition), Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 1996
Border Crossing, McClelland Regional Gallery, Langwarrin, Victoria, 1996
Eyes on the Ball, National Touring Exhibition, MOMA (Heide), Melbourne, 1996
Art des Antipodes, MADMusée, Liège, Belgium, 1995
Vita Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA, 1995
Reversed Image, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 1995
Moët et Chandon Travelling Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1994
Beyond Words, National Gallery of Victoria, VicHealth Access Gallery, 1994
Working Art, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 1994
Artists from Arts Project, Artist's Garden, Fitzroy, 1990
Publications
Julian Martin: Transformer, exhibition catalogue, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne, 2014.
Collections
Deakin University, VIC
City of Melbourne, VIC
Monash University Museum of Art, VIC
Ecovantage, VIC
STOARC, NSW
Concept Economics, Canberra, Private Collection of Henry Ergas
References
External links
http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com/shows/2016/06_kool
http://www.artsproject.org.au/artworks/154/Julian%20Martin
http://julianartist.com/
Abstract artists
21st-century Australian artists
Australian artists with disabilities
Outsider artists
Artists from Melbourne
Artists with autism
1969 births
Living people