Fergus Martin
Fergus Martin makes use of the world around him as a source for his paintings, sculpture and photographs. His work reflects things seen or even fleeting moments from the everyday. The geometric forms that consistently appear in his work give shape to his preoccupation with space, form and materials.
Recent projects have taken the form of spatial and environmental pieces. These sculptures and paintings are a journey towards a moment of recognition which Martin thinks of as a meeting of form and energy. They mirror the world around him - the colour and shape of things. He wants them to feel the density and weight of things - their sense of compression, or their opening out. Their placing in relation to one another and their relation to their architectural surroundings is a conversation about distance and nearness, centre and periphery. Ideally, it is a journey without end. Each work will initiate its own time and space while always having a sense of movement, of going on.
Published on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Dublin City Gallery- Hugh Lane (October 2008 - January 2009), a new monograph titled Fergus Martin, including essays by Barbara Dawson, David Godbold and Andreas Pinczewski, is available from the gallery.
In 2014 Martin was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute O’Malley Art Award. The award is given annually to an Irish artist of choice by a selection committee composed of curators and museum directors in Ireland. The award is sponsored by the Irish American Cultural Institute on behalf of the Ernest O’Malley family.
EXHIBITIONS WITH THE GREEN ON RED GALLERY:
Smoke, 16 May - 5 July 2024
New Work, 07 September - 14 October 2016
Outside Inside, 09 April - 16 May 2014
Photographs, 11 March - 08 April 2011
New Work, 02 June - 03 July 2009
Storm, 31 May - 30 June 2006
Solo Exhibitions
2024, Smoke, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2019 Fergus Martin Then and Now, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2016 Fergus Martin New Work, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2014 Outside Inside, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
2011 Fergus Martin Photographs, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2009 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2008/2009 Fergus Martin, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland
2006 Storm, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2003 Pipe Dreams, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
2001 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1999 Recent Work, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
1999 New Work, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1997 Six Paintings, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Six Paintings, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
1996 Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland
1994 New Paintings, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1994 New Paintings Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland
1992 Office, Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1990 Fergus Martin, Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Now You See It, Crawford Gallery Of Art, Cork, Ireland
2023 Second Sun, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2022 In & of itself – Abstraction in the age of Images, RHA Gallery, Dublin
2021 Dubliners 6th Biennial of Painting Zagreb. DLU Hrvatsko Drustvo Likovnih Umjetnika/Croatian Association of Artists, Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb
2020 RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin
2016/2017 The Crawford at the Castle: Three Centuries of Irish Art from a National Collection, Dublin Castle
2014/2015 Trove: Dorothy Cross selects from the National Collections, Irish Museum of Modern Art
2014 Meditation On Plates, Casino Marino, Dublin
2014 IMMA Collection: Conversations, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2012/2013 Into The Light: The Arts Council – 60 Years of Supporting the Arts,
2010 With words like smoke, Chelsea Space, London
2010 The nature of things, Galerie Le Petit Port, Leiden, Holland
2010 Sacred, Enniskillen Castle Museums, Enniskillen;
2010 surface & reality, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kilkenny;
2010 Dust in the air suspended, County Museum, Clonmel;
2010 RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin
2009 The way things are, Sydney Non Objective, Sydney, Australia
2009 Terror and the Sublime, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
2008 Discussions in Contemporary Sculpture, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
2008 Yo, Mo’ Modernism, Centre for Contemporary Non-objective Art, Belgium
2006 Painting by Other Means; Non-figurative Works from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales
2005 Four Now, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2005 Internationale Kunst in der Südwestkurve, Badischen Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
2004/05 C2, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2004 Dublin Connection: Paul Doran, Fergus Feehily, Fergus Martin, Galerie Michael Sturm, Stuttgart, Germany
2004 September, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2004 In the time of shaking, Irish Artists For Amnesty International, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2004 L’Art d’être au Monde, Melle, France
2001 Richard Gorman, John Graham, William McKeown, Fergus Martin, Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2000 A Measured Quietude, David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, US
1999 Drawing Project : Artists Respond to The Burlington Cartoon, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, CIRCA Magazine
1999 Contemporary Works on Paper, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin
1999 A Measured Quietude, Berkeley Art Museum, California, US
1999 A Measured Quietude, The Drawing Center, New York, US
1999 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Jeanne Greenberg
1998 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Paul M.O’Reilly
1998 Artists in Print 1998, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1997 Small Paintings, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Fergus Martin & Corban Walker, Nuova Icona Gallery, Venice, Italy
1995 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Maria De Corral
1994 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Jan Hoet
Awards
2014 Irish American Cultural Institute O’Malley Award
2010 Curtin O’Donoghue Photography Prize, RHA Annual Exhibition
2006 The Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York
1999 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York
1999 The Marten Toonder Award, The Arts Council of Ireland
1999 The Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary
1999 EV+A Open Award
1996/94 The Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary
1996 Dublin Corporation Visual Arts Bursary
Public Collections
National Gallery of Ireland
The Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
Limerick City Gallery of Art
The Arts Council of Ireland
The Office of Public Works
The National Self-Portrait Collection
LINKS:
http://www.fergusmartin.com
https://imma.ie/magazine/fergus-martin-then-and-now/
MORE INFORMATION:
For more information or purchase enquiries contact the gallery.