Eleanor Harwood Gallery is thrilled to announce Martin Machado’s second solo present with the gallery: Fine Dine the Demons. The present can be on view by means of June twenty first, 2025.
This exhibition consists of work made all through the final yr. On this group of works, Machado continues to develop a number of ongoing sequence referring to the pure world’s cycles and his expertise engaged on the water as a business fisherman and service provider mariner. The ship’s wake performs the biggest position within the present, carrying the viewer between the time and place of the opposite items; from one month’s full moon part to a far-off shoreline.
The repetition in these works illustrates the artists’ fascination with the passing of time, the blurring of reminiscence, in addition to the blessing and curse that labor performs in our lives. As seen in his earlier exhibition, a lot of the “Wake Sequence” works are painted in oil, each on linen and on nautical charts collected from worldwide containerships Machado labored on as a service provider mariner. Nevertheless, many of those current work have a coloration palette that has shifted nearer to his nocturnes. The highlights on the water are at occasions muted in a sepia that could possibly be seen as reflecting a smoke-filled sky, whereas in others, a golden hue just like the slivers of daylight breaking by means of a storm.
The moodiness of those works can be mirrored within the present’s title, High-quality Dine the Demons borrowed from the lyrics of musician Adrienne Lenker’s track titled “As soon as A Bunch.” Within the refrain, Lenker sings out, “half a margarita, have a bit dance, let’s fantastic dine the demons and provides peace an opportunity.” With equal components gallows humor and heartfelt optimism, Machado searches for a ray of sunshine within the hopelessness of our collective consciousness.
Each within the hanging of this exhibition and in his observe, Martin alternates between Plein Air work and studio-based works. In the course of the Covid lockdown, he started portray outside at evening to seize every month’s full moon and has stored up the observe. These moon work are usually created alongside the completely different waterfronts of San Francisco, pre-planned to attempt to catch the moonrise or set over the water. Climate all the time brings distinctive challenges, and naturally, the darkness itself has a job within the works. “In some methods, it is like portray with a blindfold on,” says Machado, “I just like the surprises portray at the hours of darkness can deliver, and I attempt to carry these discoveries into my studio-based work”.
Along with the massive group of oil work, there’s a cluster of smaller works on paper. As soon as once more, the ship’s wake is the main target of this group, this time translated with blue ink. In two works, the artist harkens again to an earlier sequence in his oeuvre, wherein he references European colonial expedition etchings and replaces their boats with modern floating delivery containers. The works are delicate and ephemeral, critical and humorous.
