 Esperanza 2003 Acrylic on Canvas |
 Homenaje Series 2002 Acrylic on canvas 250 x 170 cm |
 Ovalolino 2005 Acrylic on canvas 87 x 118 cm |
 Ovalo1 2005 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 150 cm |
Marta Marce's paintings don't namecheck anyone, or picture anything, or evoke a mood...a painting resembles a scalextric set...I kept coming back to it, and it looked better every time.
Jonathan Jones, the Guardian
Marta Marce's work is a highpoint in the show of work by artists shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting Prize.
Charles Darwent, The Independent on Sunday
Jonathan Jones, the Guardian
Marta Marce's work is a highpoint in the show of work by artists shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting Prize.
Charles Darwent, The Independent on Sunday
Pasajero
In her second solo show at Riflemaker - a bold new exhibition of large scale paintings and floor works, Catalonia born, London-based artist Marta Marce continues her previous conceptual investment in game theory and universal methodologies of play by exploring the relationship between the dual forces of order and chaos as they manifest themselves in the play of the ancient stick game of Mikado.
In Pasajero, using the given framework of Mikado, wherein players cast sticks in order to read their destiny in them, Marce conducts and exploits her painterly mode to unearth, in every line and colour decision, something fundamentally visual in the idea of the game. It is in Mikado that Marce sees a perfect demonstration of the fundamental balance of binary forces in the world, the game here representing an energetic example of the complex states of life in which we are all continually engaged.
In casting down our lot - by playing the game - we actively engage the dual forces of order and chaos.
This idea is equally extendable to the microcosm of the painter’s world. In painting, via practice-based development, the rules of medium are established and a methodological order is set. Ever existent however, is the potential to challenge this order through the spontaneous gesture and passionate movement of inspired creative action. Marce then, as an artist who continues to reinvent her painterly medium with an unceasing zest and originality, is at one with this schism, understanding both order and chaos as necessarily coexistent forces.
Considering these works then, we must appreciate a three-fold relationship between, the game, painting and life itself. By investigating this trinity, Marce re-energises her work with a beautifully raw essential force.
A clear and apparent élan reels from outwards from Marce’s canvases, and now In a new development, for the first time in London, she introduces a three dimensional element into her oeuvre – with one of the central works in the show being a fully interactive version of Mikado.
So come, play and discover how Marta Marce - through her exploitation of game dynamics - relates some fundamental realities intimate to the ecology of existence itself…
In Pasajero, using the given framework of Mikado, wherein players cast sticks in order to read their destiny in them, Marce conducts and exploits her painterly mode to unearth, in every line and colour decision, something fundamentally visual in the idea of the game. It is in Mikado that Marce sees a perfect demonstration of the fundamental balance of binary forces in the world, the game here representing an energetic example of the complex states of life in which we are all continually engaged.
In casting down our lot - by playing the game - we actively engage the dual forces of order and chaos.
This idea is equally extendable to the microcosm of the painter’s world. In painting, via practice-based development, the rules of medium are established and a methodological order is set. Ever existent however, is the potential to challenge this order through the spontaneous gesture and passionate movement of inspired creative action. Marce then, as an artist who continues to reinvent her painterly medium with an unceasing zest and originality, is at one with this schism, understanding both order and chaos as necessarily coexistent forces.
Considering these works then, we must appreciate a three-fold relationship between, the game, painting and life itself. By investigating this trinity, Marce re-energises her work with a beautifully raw essential force.
A clear and apparent élan reels from outwards from Marce’s canvases, and now In a new development, for the first time in London, she introduces a three dimensional element into her oeuvre – with one of the central works in the show being a fully interactive version of Mikado.
So come, play and discover how Marta Marce - through her exploitation of game dynamics - relates some fundamental realities intimate to the ecology of existence itself…
Diadem Paintings review courtest of ArtForum
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT VIRGINIA DAMTSA AT TEL 0207 439 0000 / E INFO@RIFLEMAKER.ORG
MARTA MARCE OPENS THE SECOND RIFLEMAKER SPACE
MARTA MARCÉ
(b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
3 December - 8 February, Soho Square
MARTA MARCÉ
(b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
3 December - 8 February, Soho Square
Marta Marcé (b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
is known for her paintings inspired by games. For the opening of Riflemaker, Soho Square, in November, Marcé will present a series of canvases painted in the artist's studio at Camden Arts Centre this summer.
"The subject of these paintings is obviously the game, but the object is colour, gesture and form. The result of adding the two is happiness, and this is what Marcé brings us" Sherman Sam (CAC catalogue).
"She turns the principles of modern painting on their heads" Rebecca Geldard, Time Out
Pictured: 'Flowing' paintings from the Diadem series, acrylic on mdf or silk, 122 x 160 cms, 2007
We have just opened a second gallery on the first floor of a Grade One listed mansion on the corner of Soho Square. The building, from 1746, was formerly a hostel for the destitute of St.Anne's Parish. The Riflemaker exhibition space is situated at the top of a 'crinolene' staircase so named because its wide railings are shaped for the width of 18c ladies skirts. It comprises three main rooms, the former Withdrawing Room, Council Room and Records Room. The house has a private chapel within a walled garden where Charles Dickens once sat beneath the mulberry bush as he began to compose 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
Riflemaker Soho Square opens to the public
Monday 3 December, 2007
is known for her paintings inspired by games. For the opening of Riflemaker, Soho Square, in November, Marcé will present a series of canvases painted in the artist's studio at Camden Arts Centre this summer.
"The subject of these paintings is obviously the game, but the object is colour, gesture and form. The result of adding the two is happiness, and this is what Marcé brings us" Sherman Sam (CAC catalogue).
"She turns the principles of modern painting on their heads" Rebecca Geldard, Time Out
Pictured: 'Flowing' paintings from the Diadem series, acrylic on mdf or silk, 122 x 160 cms, 2007
We have just opened a second gallery on the first floor of a Grade One listed mansion on the corner of Soho Square. The building, from 1746, was formerly a hostel for the destitute of St.Anne's Parish. The Riflemaker exhibition space is situated at the top of a 'crinolene' staircase so named because its wide railings are shaped for the width of 18c ladies skirts. It comprises three main rooms, the former Withdrawing Room, Council Room and Records Room. The house has a private chapel within a walled garden where Charles Dickens once sat beneath the mulberry bush as he began to compose 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
Riflemaker Soho Square opens to the public
Monday 3 December, 2007
Some notes on the Diadem paintings by Marta Marcé...
"Mainly I was thinking of geometry and the game Tangram which uses geometric shapes to create recognisable forms. I wanted to use these shapes to create multiple-use geometric figures. Geometry is one of the keys to this new series, but it is, as always in my work, an unsettled geometry, not at all rigid or intending to be completely perfect. I want to show how it can be a 'primary element' from which all shapes can be constructed and realised. I have tried to think of geometry as a live creature that continually changes, each time giving us quite different random shapes and ideas which make up our real world. Life is movement and I started the floor pieces thinking about a movement that the visitor can also interact with. The floor pieces entitled Flow 1 and Flow 2 are like a moving, developing painting within which people can move the shapes to create variations, deciding on the different relationships of colour and design. Overall movement is achieved in the resultant paintings by making a series of them. Each one shows a possible interaction of these geometric figures whilst at the same time introducing a unique rhythm/interference of colour.
Energy is constantly transforming the elements and this energy is contained in forms and colours. In the paintings, the activity/movement balances control with chance, giving an uncertain result. Colours are neither pure nor impure, neither beautiful nor ugly. I see colour as light that impacts on forms and materials. Therefore, light conditions will affect our vision of these colours and our vision of reality.
My use of games is like a metaphor for the structure and development of life itself, an activity with an uncertain outcome. The act of painting functions in a similar way - there are the boundaries of the canvas, the limitations of paint, the conceptual constraints of actually making a painting, and finally the environment in which they are shown. I use and also manipulate basic systems and rules of games of my own. The structures these rules provide are always the starting point of my work and are used to issue instructions and strategies in the making of the paintings. But I also allow an element of chance and self-determination to enter the process in order to introduce playfulness in the face of what can otherwise be a quite constrained activity.
I communicate visually the way I think life is, trying to balance order and freedom, trying to express the energy of life through the experimentation of colour and the manipulation of basic shapes. It is always geometric in some way, but painted leaving a human trace"
Marta Marcé, Barcelona, November 2007
"Mainly I was thinking of geometry and the game Tangram which uses geometric shapes to create recognisable forms. I wanted to use these shapes to create multiple-use geometric figures. Geometry is one of the keys to this new series, but it is, as always in my work, an unsettled geometry, not at all rigid or intending to be completely perfect. I want to show how it can be a 'primary element' from which all shapes can be constructed and realised. I have tried to think of geometry as a live creature that continually changes, each time giving us quite different random shapes and ideas which make up our real world. Life is movement and I started the floor pieces thinking about a movement that the visitor can also interact with. The floor pieces entitled Flow 1 and Flow 2 are like a moving, developing painting within which people can move the shapes to create variations, deciding on the different relationships of colour and design. Overall movement is achieved in the resultant paintings by making a series of them. Each one shows a possible interaction of these geometric figures whilst at the same time introducing a unique rhythm/interference of colour.
Energy is constantly transforming the elements and this energy is contained in forms and colours. In the paintings, the activity/movement balances control with chance, giving an uncertain result. Colours are neither pure nor impure, neither beautiful nor ugly. I see colour as light that impacts on forms and materials. Therefore, light conditions will affect our vision of these colours and our vision of reality.
My use of games is like a metaphor for the structure and development of life itself, an activity with an uncertain outcome. The act of painting functions in a similar way - there are the boundaries of the canvas, the limitations of paint, the conceptual constraints of actually making a painting, and finally the environment in which they are shown. I use and also manipulate basic systems and rules of games of my own. The structures these rules provide are always the starting point of my work and are used to issue instructions and strategies in the making of the paintings. But I also allow an element of chance and self-determination to enter the process in order to introduce playfulness in the face of what can otherwise be a quite constrained activity.
I communicate visually the way I think life is, trying to balance order and freedom, trying to express the energy of life through the experimentation of colour and the manipulation of basic shapes. It is always geometric in some way, but painted leaving a human trace"
Marta Marcé, Barcelona, November 2007
MARTA MARCE: Marta Marce installation at Riflemaker. Acrylic
paint on silk on wicker disc supports. Work made during the artist's residency
in China 2005
