Ray Martin

Ray Martin’s paintings stem from a desire to travel, an interest in exotic landscapes. Yet his works are not representational of real places, but of second source imagery available as a result of this century’s technological advances.
Appropriating source material from found imagery, as opposed to the reality of these destinations, creates a paradoxical relationship for him. We are all now able to access the wonders of the world with the click of a button or by flicking through a book, but the experience we have of these places becomes simultaneously genuine, and fabricated.
Martin’s paintings explore the ways in which deconstruction, or ‘barriers’ within an image, can create feelings of frustration and distancing for the viewer – they are able to build a relationship with the marks and forms in them, but the relationship built is a manufactured one. The intense colour and forms created within his landscapes highlight this, as they are intuitively abstracted from his own reality in a consumerist world.
In employing conflicting visual languages within the creation of his landscapes, Martin attempts to make visible his internal struggle with, and questioning of, both his source material and the nature of painting itself.

Manchester School of Art
BA Fine Art

BA(hons) 2010-2014

ALWAYSALWAYSLAND - Manchester School of Art, Manchester, 2014

POST EVERYTHING - BUREAU Gallery, Manchester, 2014

Reverie - Piccadilly Place, Manchester, 2014

Unititled - Link Gallery, Manchester, 2014

Ruf Guild - KRAAK Gallery, Manchester, 2013

AUSSTELLUNG-EXPOSICIO-EXHIBITION - Antwerp Mansion,

Manchester, Munich, Barcelona, 2013