Martine Poppe (B. 1988, Norway) has been living and working in London and Oslo. Poppe graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art BA and MFA in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Poppe’s works are developed from the fluidity between the different materials she employs, negotiating the boundaries between abstraction and representation. The artist’s source materials, which are often photographs or textiles, instigate her process. Climate is at the heart of Poppe’s subject matter. The artist takes photographs of nature, processing the images digitally, twisting the pixels until the photograph is at the brink of becoming illegible. Once printed out, these large scale photographs are affixed behind translucent fabrics on stretchers, creating a screen that Poppe can see through and work on with paint. Poppe's paintings carry the effects of diffracted light and overexposed photography, as well as the pixelation of blown-up digital images. The photographs, as well as other surplus materials are later recycled as standing barriers or scrunched up shapes in the exhibition space.
Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) The Earth in Search of Magic Tidings, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Nevlunghavn (2023); Peering at the Edge of Daydreams, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin (2023); Pause, C O U N T Y, Palm Beach, Florida (2021), A piece of me, Kristin Hjellegjerde, London (2021), To Be Announced at Buer Gallery, Oslo (2021); Zima Blue, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin (2020), Waiting for Y at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2019) and Portraits of trees at Trafo Kunsthall, Norway (2018-2019), Crinkled escape routes and other somewhat flat things, Kristin Hjellegjerde, London (2016), 50% Grå, Trafo Kunsthall, Norway (2015) and Anatidaephobia, Kristin Hjellegjerde, London (2014).
Group exhibitions include Untitled Miami Beach, C O U N T Y, Miami (2022), Girl meets girl, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway (2022), Det gåtefulle lyset, Galleri Polaris, Oslo, Norway (2022); (De)construct, Paris (2022-23); BAD+, Bordeaux (2022), Galerie 208, Regeneration, Informality, Oxfordshire (2022), Art Paris, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Paris (2022), Dallas Art Fair, C O U N T Y, Dallas (2021), Facing the sun, Schloss Görne, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin , Germany (2021); Sorgenfri Skulpturpark, Sorgenfri, Oslo, Norway (2020); Art on a postcard, The Allbright, London, United Kingdom (2020); 2084, Cable Factory/Valssaamo, Helsinki (2020), Artmonte Carlo with VI, VII, Monaco (2019), 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, Post Institute, London, United Kingdom (2018); Aphrodite lowers her mirror, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin (2018); Studio Spring at CCA Andratx, Spain (2018); Between the lines, The Women’s Museum and Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway (2018); New Order II: British Art Today at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2014).
Highlights and Collections
Poppe’s works can be found in the collections of UK Government Art Collection (UK), KODE Museums (Norway), the Saatchi Collection (UK), Benetton Collection (Italy), the Kistefos Museum (Norway), NRKs Kunstsamling (Norway), House of St. Barnabas Collection (UK), CCA Andratx (Spain), UCL Art Collection (UK) and Oxford University Collection (UK).