Deborah Martin

The Drawer, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kobalt Gallery in Deborah Martin

Stairs, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kobalt Gallery in Deborah Martin

Love, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kobalt Gallery in Deborah Martin

Baptist Bus, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kobalt Gallery in Deborah Martin

Aces and Spades, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kobalt Gallery in Deborah Martin

Deborah Martin

(b. Boston 1961) has established a compelling dominion as portraitist of an archaic America. A site-specific artist, her work eulogizes the abandoned habitats and domestic landscapes of small town America. As a painter her work has been compared to that of the prominent American realist painters, Edward Hopper (1882-1967) and Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009).

Much of her practice emerges in collaborative conversation with writers and video artists, and takes form through exhibitions, installations and publications. She is recognized for several pivotal bodies of work: Narrow Lands (Provincetown, MA), Home on the Strange: In Search of the Salton Sea (Salton Sea, CA), and America (U.S.). Her book Home on the Strange: In Search of the Salton Sea was published by Catalysis Projects and written by Amy Sather Smith (2010.)

Currently, Martin is living and working in California’s Southern Mojave Desert documenting the unincorporated town of Wonder Valley. In this new body of work titled “Back of Beyond” Martin immortalizes a 21st century desert struggle against destruction. The publication based on this series of paintings is a collaborative effort between Martin and the Los Angeles Poet Nicky Sa-eun Schildkraut.

Deborah Martin has exhibited in galleries and Museums in New York, Provincetown, Boston and Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in prominent magazines including New American Paintings Magazine, Palm Springs Life Magazine, Fabrik, Angeleno and Blue Canvas. She is a recipient of the 2011 Orlowsky Freed Foundation Grant sponsored in part by the Lilian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

Martin received her BFA and BS Masters of Arts in Teaching, Art Education from The Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University.