Jason Martin’s “Vertex” on View at Christian Stein Gallery
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
Galleria Christian Stein inaugurates its sixtieth year of activity (1966–2026) by presenting Vertex, the second solo exhibition at the gallery by Jason Martin (Jersey, Great Britain, 1970), a visual artist who lives and works between London and Portugal’s Alentejo region.
The exhibition revolves around a core group of six monumental oil paintings on aluminium, distinguished by vibrant chromatic textures and created specifically for the occasion. These are accompanied by two mixed-media works, on aluminium and velvet, whose surfaces take on an almost sculptural quality.
Martin’s aesthetic is defined by a palette of intense colours and remarkable luminosity, in perfect harmony with the light of the gallery spaces overlooking the park of Palazzo Cicogna. The paintings are highly evocative not only for their unmistakable chromatic presence, but also for their titles, which suggest a mythological or spiritual dimension — Alethia, Tantra, Virgo — and recall the cosmological sphere evoked by the exhibition’s title, Vertex.
As Sergio Risaliti observes, Jason Martin’s practice is distinguished by a rare coherence, built upon a rigorous fidelity to his painterly language. This continuity does not result in repetition, but rather unfolds as a fertile field of variations, where each work renews the potential of the previous one. In his paintings, matter becomes alive and unstable, generating vibrant surfaces that oscillate between painting and sculpture, between control and unpredictability. It is precisely within this tension — between discipline and surprise — that a sense of wonder emerges, capable of redefining, each time, the experience of looking.
Comments