Martine Johanna's "Dancer" Explores the Psychology of Color and Gesture
Installation of Martine Johanna's "Dancer" at Spoke Art Gallery (San Francisco) | Image courtesy of Shaun Roberts.
As one fixates on the prismatic figures that occupy Martine Johanna’s paintings, a cerebral landscape comes into focus. Known for her detailed skill and effervescent color palette, the Amsterdam-based artist investigates abstracted movement in her latest series of paintings. For the month of October, Spoke Art Gallery in San Francisco introduces nine brand new works by Johanna in a solo exhibition titled "Dancer."
Applying layers of acrylic to panel and canvas, Johanna establishes a duality of tone throughout her paintings. Her female subjects appear lost in thought, their expressions serving as veils to a deeper psychological space. Every slight gesture seems to be guarded, yet amplified through the artist’s use of immersive abstraction. Their gaze extends beyond the geometric compositions that surround them, establishing a longing and anxiety that contrasts with the playful pretense.
Coloration plays a key role in the complexities of Johanna’s figures. One subject softly rests her hand to her cheek, creating a warm hue of shadow that counters the cool shading around her eyes. These opposing pigments challenge each other, while questioning the viewer’s inherent relationship to color and mood. Several paintings in “Dancer” are also coated in a thick resin, resulting in a sleek reflective surface. This vitreous luster saturates each painting, causing the pigment to vibrate in collision with the reality reflected on its surface.
“Dancer” focuses on movement and momentum as a way of conveying narrative. The artist elaborated to Juxtapoz Magazine in a recent interview, “Dance is one of the oldest forms of communication and storytelling. It consists of purposefully or instinctively selected sequences of motion and conveys or processes emotions without using words. It is a way of storytelling, a social healing ritual… And the wonderful thing is it has momentum.”
Installation of Martine Johanna's "Dancer" at Spoke Art Gallery (San Francisco) | Image courtesy of Shaun Roberts.
Martine Johanna has gained international success exhibiting throughout the Netherlands and abroad. With a background in fashion design, the artist often draws inspiration from life experience. Selected exhibitions include solo shows at Bright Side Gallery and Walls Gallery in Amsterdam, in addition to group shows at Massey Lyuben in New York.
"Martine Johanna's "Dancer" is on view at Spoke Art Gallery in San Francisco, Oct 8 - Oct 29, 2016.