Graham Martin (1983) is a London-based artist born in Ayr, Scotland. He is currently pursuing an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art and previously studied at the Edinburgh College of Art (2001-2003).
Martin has exhibited across the United Kingdom, with his most recent exhibition at the Hockney Gallery in London (2020). He has also been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2020) and was nominated for the John Moores Painting Prize (2018) among other awards.
Central to Martin’s practice is the relationship between natural and man-made environments, and how that relationship is manifested in derelict and abandoned structures. Martin is fascinated by places that retain traces of earlier incarnations. Places that map an intended purpose or indicate another period in time. Places that occupy that liminal space between a failed or redundant past and an uncertain future. Places in a constant flux. In his recent work, Martin explores notions of queer time and space in this environment, informed by scholars Jack Halberstam and José Esteban Muñoz.
Using washes of paint and drip effects, each of Martin’s paintings evoke a sense of a contemplative journey that materialises the strange feeling of a deserted space. As the global pandemic triggered the closing down of many businesses and establishments worldwide, leaving multiple empty venues behind, Martin’s exploration of abandoned sites is gaining increasing relevance.