Pause

Martine Poppe

April 16 - May 2, 2021

Passing through, 2021

Oil on polyester restoration fabric

63 x 43 in  (160 x 109.2 cm)

COUNTY is pleased to present Pause by Martine Poppe.

These recent paintings are based on digital photographs the artist took from airplane windows while flying to and from art exhibitions.  They preserve happy accidents of sunlight, cloud iridescence, lens flare, and other moments of evanescent beauty discovered in the quiet, introspective interludes between each departure and arrival.

The exhibition title, Pause, addresses the moments we are in real time being awed by the beauty we see in the moment. Truly taking in the majestic beauty of nature from above. At the same time, Poppe pushes the envelope of photorealism beyond the domain of the literal with measured, scalloped brushwork that allows the paintings to be read as abstract compositions. Many of her titles, such as “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “I Don’t Know If I Could Ever Go Without,” suggest the private thoughts and longings of cloud-gazing travelers. Since she began making the series in 2018, Poppe says that many people have approached her unprompted to show her their own cloud photographs they have taken while traveling. She is fascinated by how such a solitary activity as cloud-gazing from the window seat of an airplane can become a shared experience that connects us to a larger sociality.

Poppe paints on what she calls “the underskirts of the Old Masters,” using the same specialized fabric that conservators use for restoring fragile Renaissance paintings. Although this translucent fabric may appear delicate, it is designed to be strong and durable. By using it as the support for her paintings, Poppe affirms the power of quiet resiliency as an alternative to more overt representations of strength in art. The translucency of the material also mirrors the translucency of the clouds, creating an intriguing relationship between the materiality of the artwork and the immateriality of its subject.

Poppe’s cloudscapes represent a synthesis of many opposites: softness and strength, transience and permanence, the natural and the virtual, photorealism and abstraction. Although grounded in the familiar, they point to moments of beauty that transcend the mundane. They allow for the prospect of shared experience while providing space for solitary contemplation.

Martine Poppe is a Norwegian-born, London-based artist, who received her MFA from the Slade School of Art in 2013. Recent solo and two-person shows include To Be Announced at Buer Gallery, Oslo (2021); Zima Blue, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin (2020); Waiting for Y at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2019); Artmonte Carlo with VI, VII, Monaco (2019); Portraits of trees at Trafo Kunsthall, Norway (2018-2019); and Aphrodite lowers her mirror at Kristin Hjellegjerde Berlin (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Sorgenfri Skulpturpark, Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway (2020); Art on a postcard, The Allbright, London, United Kingdom (2020); 2084, Cable Factory/Valssaamo, Helsinki (2020), Artist Rooms with Encounter Contemporary at Copeland Gallery; Carousel at Koppel Project Central, London (2019); ALAC, Los Angeles (2019); LISTE, VI, VII, Basel, Switzerland (2018); Slippage: Performative utterances in painting, cur. Lucy von Goetz and Oliver Morris-Jones, Post_Institute, London, United Kingdom (2018); Studio Spring at CCA Andratx, Spain (2018). Other exhibitions and art fairs include Between the lines, The Women’s Museum and Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway (2018); UNTITLED, San Francisco (2017); Brussels Art Fair (2018 and 2017) and VOLTA (Basel, 2017 and 2016) with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery; S|2 x SF at Sotheby’s (San Francisco, 2015); Sunset© at Hooper Projects, Los Angeles (2015); and New Order II: British Art Today at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2014). Poppe’s works can be found in the collections of the UK Government Art Collection (UK), the Kistefos Museum (Norway), NRK (Norway), the Saatchi Collection (UK), University College London (UK), Oxford University (UK), CCA Andratx (Spain), House of St. Barnabas (UK), and KODE Museums (Norway), among others.

Logan R. Beitmen