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) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (2025); (Upcoming) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2024); The Earth in Search of Magic Tidings, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Nevlunghavn, Norway (2023); Peering at the Edge of Daydreams, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2023); Pause, COUNTY, Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2021), A piece of me, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2021), To be announced, Buer Gallery, Oslo, Norway (2021); Zima Blue, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020), Waiting for Y, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2019);artmonte-carlo, with VI, VII, Monaco (2019); Portraits of trees, Trafo Kunsthall, Asker, Norway (2018-2019), Art Brussels, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Crinkled escape routes and other somewhat flat things, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2016), 50% Grå, Trafo Kunsthall, Norway (2015) and Anatidaephobia, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2014).
Group exhibitions include Art Singapore Art Fair, Kirstin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Singapore (2024); The Ark, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Goerne (2024); Untitled Miami Beach, COUNTY, Florida, USA (2022); Girl meets girl, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway (2022); (De)construct, Galerie 208, Paris, France (2022-23); BAD+, Galerie 208, Bordeaux, France (2022); Art Karlsruhe, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Karlsruhe, Germany (2022); Art Paris, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Paris, France (2022); Regeneration, Informality, Oxfordshire, UK (2022); Dallas Art Fair, COUNTY, Dallas, Texas, USA (2021); Oslo Design Fair, Lillestrøm, Norway (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, UK (2020); 2084, Cable Factory/Valssaamo, Helsinki, Finland (2020); Artist Rooms, curated by Richeldis Fine Art and Encounter Contemporary, Copeland Gallery, London, UK (2019); Carousel, The Koppel Project Central, London, UK (2019); Kunstverliv, travelling exhibition, Norway (2019); ALAC, with VI, VII, Los Angeles, California, USA (2019); Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Treviso, Italy (2018); LISTE, with VI, VII, Basel, Switzerland (2018); Banff residency exhibition, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada (2018); Slippage: Performative utterances in painting, Post Institute, London, UK (2018); Aphrodite lowers her mirror, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2018); Studio Spring at CCA Andratx, Spain (2018); Art Brussels, with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2018); Collection display, House of St. Barnabas, London, UK (2018); Between the lines, The Women’s Museum and Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway (2018); The Other Side, curated by Paul Carey-Kent, House of St. Barnabas, London, UK (2017); New Order II: British Art Today, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2014); Arcana, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (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). Poppe has been the receiver of multiple esteemed grants and awards including a grant from Ingrid Lindbäck Langaards Stiftelse in 2021 and 2022, the grant for young artists from the Norwegian Arts Council in 2017. In 2015, Poppe was shortlisted for the East London Painting Prize. She awarded the Juvenarte Price in Norway in 2010 and 2011.