Martin Robert Reed: Unfinished Self Project

Posted on June 30, 2016 by unit24

Private View: Thursday, 30 June 2016, 7-9pm
31 July – 2 August

Unit24 Gallery is delighted to present the “Unfinished self” project Martin Robert Reeds first solo exhibition in London. The show features artist’s new and recent oil paintings which explore self-portraiture and the human condition.

As humans we are persistently engaged in thought and our emotions govern our existence, these attributes contribute to what inspires us, yet it is our action our physical motion that directly interprets our response to stimulus. In this regard the drawing/painting process becomes his main concern, as this is the direct link with our human physicality our presence. It is this physicality in his drawings/paintings that he believes makes a direct connection to the viewer. “Through paint it is my intention to immerse the viewer in reality. Not just my own reality as an artist, or the paintings’ reality, but for the viewer to ask questions about their own reality”. Figuration underpins his paintings and is the main concern, the human condition, consciousness and existence. The fascination with human sophistication and our complex journey, a complex journey that ends unfinished.
The unfinished-self is rooted in self-portraiture, not in a mimetic sense, not in our physical likeness but in a deeper sense. we are sophisticated beings, we have emotion, intelligence, imagination and aspirations. Given more time we would continue our journey of self-discovery and what it means to be human. we never fully reach a stage of completion, we are only ever on a journey one that we can never complete, we finish our journey unfinished.

Martin Robert Reed (born 1966) graduated from the Carmarthen School of Art in 2015, Wales Uk. In 2015 he was chosen as a finalist in the Cellest international art competition Milan Italy, Special guest artist at Art-rooms Melia Whitehouse Hotel London. His works in collections internationally California, Canada, Australia, Italy and London. Martin Robert Reed lives and works in Carmarthenshire, South West Wales, UK.