b. 1963, Pontiac, MI, USA
Janice Martin is an American artist whose work explores urban blight and decay, transience and impermanence. She creates sculptures and paintings of abandoned houses in the urban landscape of the rust belt where she currently lives and works.
Martin has participated in exhibitions nationally and internationally. Most recently, venues include Scarob Club (Detroit, MI); Hatch Art Gallery (Detroit, MI); Detroit Contemporary (Detroit, MI) ; Fishnet Art Studio (Dearborn, MI) ; Dearborn Public Library (Dearborn, MI); Padzieski Art Gallery (Dearborn, MI) ; M. David & Co. Yellow Chair Salon Virtual Galleries (Brooklyn, NY) ; Kent State University Galleries (Kent, OH); School of Visual Arts (New York, NY); Brooklyn Diamond (Brooklyn, NY).
Janice Martin has completed several residencies at Yellow Chair Salon Virtual Residency, M.David &Co /Truro Center of the Arts(Cape Cod, MA ); SVA (New York, NY): International School of Art (Montecastello di Vibio, Italy); Student Art Center International (Florence, Italy).
Martin currently lives in Belleville, Michigan, outside of Detroit , where she works in her studio.
Artist Statement
In my recent paintings and sculptures I am exploring displacement, disruptions of life’s rhythms, and a yearning for a time and place that no longer exists. The house is a vessel that holds memories, and in my work the idea of abandoned houses represents loss—of childhood and family, of transience and impermanence. Forgotten and discarded objects—once considered valuable and useful—are left behind, scattered in streets, providing evidence that time has passed. It is through confronting these issues of urban blight that I examine and reframe my personal loss and struggles and understand them as universal challenges.
My artwork involves quickly, fluidly building and painting models of abandoned houses using cardboard. I likewise make paintings with gestural brushstrokes, with an urgency to release intense emotions of loss and grief, simultaneously feeling and doing. I use cardboard as a vehicle of decay and impermanence. I make paintings from the models using thick areas of paint and quick, often calligraphic brushstrokes. My use of color is intuitive, keeping in mind the personal importance of immediacy. This conversation extends from my previous paintings of discarded objects in the urban landscape of the rust belt, where I grew up and currently live.The physicality of the paint, and the very act of painting embody my experience in these places of urban blight. Contemporary influences include Cecily Brown for her use of bold brushwork, Amanda Williams for her bright palette of site-specific painted houses, and Oscar Murillo for his use of mark making.