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Peering at the Edge of Daydreams
Martine Poppe -
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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 CollectionsPoppe’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).
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This shifting sense of perspective is the result of both process and materiality. With this latest series, Poppe heavily manipulated her photographs to not just enhance the light and warp the colors, but to also reduce areas of shadow. The remaining areas of darkness appear as isolated pixels when printed at a large-scale and are further intensified in the transference from digital image to painted surface – Poppe covers the printed image with a translucent type of sail cloth which she paints directly onto in quick, textural gestures that evoke the distorted effect while also recording her physical movements. As a result, the areas of darkness come to symbolise not just the transience of nature, but also our hand in its demise. As Poppe notes, her ‘accidental’ pollution of the perfect image is, to a certain extent, ‘a tongue-in-cheek comment on the willful blindness and forced cheerfulness in current politics concerning environmental change.’ However, the purpose of these paintings is not to pass judgment or illicit feelings of guilt – instead they seek to demonstrate the subversive power of positivity.Poppe first came across the term ‘bubblegum minimalism’ in relation to a particular style of pop music and literature, but what she finds most interesting is how the avoidance of negativity has the effect not so much of removing that feeling as creating a void. In other words, we become hyper aware of the unreality of the situation, of the performance, or in Poppe’s case, the image. In turn, we are able to reflect more clearly on what’s lacking. ‘My art history teachers would say there was something similar going on in the joie de vivre art of the 1910s and 20s, when movements such as Art Deco and Art Nouveau had a lot of influence,’ says Poppe. ‘However, they would also criticize those movements for being blind to what was coming whereas I believe that art responds to the needs of the time in which it is made.’Within the context of global concerns around the environment, political upheaval, human rights issues and financial crashes, Poppe’s radiant paintings offer not just a welcome sense of relief, but also hope. While art might be a ‘daydream’, it is also a way of inspiring real-life action and change.
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Martine Poppe: Peering at the Edge of Daydreams
Past viewing_room
