eddie martinez

Eddie Martinez's First Exhibit in Korea

American artist Eddie Martinez stands on front of two of his paintings at the Seomi&Tuus Gallery, Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul.

/ Korea Times Photo
by Cathy Rose A. Garcia

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

Interview, a hip American magazine, recently featured artist Eddie Martinez as one of the artists to watch in 2009. ``His idiosyncratic drawing style is deceptively simple and has the magical, faux naive quality of Paul Klee,'' the magazine wrote.

The 31-year-old artist is generating a lot of buzz in the art world for his exuberant paintings inhabited with comic book-like characters and characterized by intriguing forms.

The Korea Times met with Martinez, who was in town last week to attend the opening of his first solo exhibition in Korea at the Seomi&Tuus Gallery, Cheongdam-dong.

Born in Groton, Connecticut, Martinez said he was always interested in art. ``Even when I was playing sports, I always gravitated towards the graphics, forms and colors. I started skateboarding, there's always a huge presence of art in that with the skateboards and graphics. `The Simpsons,' when it came out, that was a huge influence on me, and comic books, Garfield, Ziggy and Calvin and Hobbes. I was just drawing and painting, doing graffiti and stuff like that,'' he said.


``Freedom (French Fries)''
by Eddie MartinezWhen he was in high school, Martinez realized he wanted to go to art school. ``I applied to art schools but I didn't get in to the one I wanted to. I applied again, didn't get in. So I went to another school to do one year, and transferred to the art school. I went in and dropped out after a month. I didn't understand why I had to do science and history, I just wanted to draw,'' he said.

His lack of formal art education does not seem to be a hindrance, and Martinez doesn't regret dropping out. ``It's a benefit now because I didn't learn a lot of the things that people learned. (At art school) they try to teach you how not to be like everyone else but they're showing you everyone else's works all the time, so you'll be influenced. When you're teaching yourself, you don't have that,'' he said.

His works have been shown in various galleries around the world, including Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, Deitch Projects in New York and Peres Projects in Berlin.

Martinez has done a series of ``tabletop paintings,'' which shows messy tables filled with random items like pretzels, keys, toys and a pineapple.

``I don't think about it really, it just sort of happens. It's a table but it can also look like a snow globe,'' he points to the work ``Untitled (Table with Pretzel).'' ``Sometimes, I'll make something that I see in my field of vision. If I see a key, I'll paint a key. Sometimes it's straightforward and sometimes it's symbolic.''

Like his cluttered tabletop paintings, Martinez said his own table at the studio is filled with lots of small objects like Smurfs figures and miniature vases. ``I like the clutter and I usually have junk everywhere,'' he said.

Martinez' works are darkly humorous, witty and never boring. At the gallery, there are portraits of clowns, wide-eyed characters and skull heads, as well as a serving of French fries. One playful piece is ``Serious Conversation (Guy Speaking with the Telephone)'' showing a bug-eyed man holding a banana to his ear.

The skull paintings were started when Martinez was doing a residency in Vienna, Austria last year. ``When I went back to the States, `Dark Knight' came out and I was really impressed with Heath Ledger. So I started doing a bunch of those. I did one that was shown in London and the subtitle was ``R.I.P. Heath Ledger,'' he said.

His newer works are showing signs of becoming more abstract, something that is perhaps a natural progression.

The Eddie Martinez Show runs through March 20 at Seomi&Tuus Gallery, located next to the Gucci flagship store in Cheongdam-dong. Visit www.seomituus.com or call (02) 511-7305.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr