Javier Marten Interview
My visual system is a synthesis of my perception of nature, life and the world.
That world of the tangible and at the same time ephemeral diversity of the forests of Costa Rica that prevails in my plastic proposal that I translate in sensual forms and metaphors. My gestural and lyric abstract language is as broad as the wind when it blows on the trees, in that constant becoming and getting rid of life. In my process, the morphologies I portray on the canvas are routes to the freedom of the cosmos and its multidimensional spaces and time, full of color and mysteries to be deciphered.
The colors of nature, the topography of natural territories, the fractalness of rivers, roads and vegetation in front of the movement of light and water, inspire me.
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? And your first experience in art making?
I really like your question, because knowing the historical and formal processes of an artist allows us to understand his work beyond the obvious. Since childhood, my visual arts have been an archetypal ritual with the biomorphic twists of nature, a necessary induction to immersion in color, lines and concentric turns. The theme and movement in my artworks, did not start being an adult, as is the case of most artists, but from a very young age, as you can see in this drawing about a city in the midst of nature, made with pilots when I was eleven years old:
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
My artworks are the consequence of an essential and very particular characteristic of music, the "principle of simultaneity" that is a present tense in myself and my art expression. The movement in my artworks is biomorphic, natural as music is in the wind, the sea and the sounds. Sometimes I and my art are simple as it happens with a melody, when my artworks are accompanied by flat colors. And other times I and my artworks are extremely complex, like contrapuntal polyphonies, when I immerse in my backgrounds loaded with greens, blues, waves or lianas that go deep into oceans or jungles of consciousness, in which several living beings sway and sing in unison.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
My artistic visual system is a synthesis of my perception of nature, life and the world. That world of the tangible and at the same time ephemeral diversity of the forests of Costa Rica that prevails in my plastic proposal that I translate in sensual forms and metaphors.
My gestural and lyric abstract language is as broad as the wind when it blows on the trees, in that constant becoming and getting rid of life.
What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?
My intention is to synaesthetically fertilize the perceptions of the observer. This is the reason for being invited to Art Dubai 2018, where I will participate, due to the perpetual movement of my paintings, in which the law of the communicating vessels and its homogeneous movement of forms and colors always keeps feeding the composition and the perception of the observer, going beyond the obvious. Emotions are free as each individual preserves depending on his own experiences.
When do you know that an artwork is finished?
When I feel the painting codifies both the entrails of the Earth, as the infinite rumors of the sea or the movements of the wind on nature, different ways that prove that my painting is done. I know the painting is done when this sensation highlights a strong dynamic that also repeats softly as an echo.
What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?
When general public and connoisseurs began to like my artwork and started inviting me to exhibit not only locally but also internationally in order to reach new observers.
How long does it take to produce one work?
The production of each painting depends on the intention. When it's simple I can last three days but the details in a big painting, like in the jungle or the sea, where there is so much life, can take me up to three months
What exciting projects are you working on right now? Can you share some of the future plans for your artworks?
I am working in four paintings that represent the jungle and its surroundings. Also I designed in a garden project that merges with the jungle along with my permanent experiences with biomorphic structures in canvas. Nature is the consciousness of universal creation, my artwork projects and architectural landscape always apply to the synesthetic expression, with the purpose that the public feels its space in nature and always feels part of it, not its owner. Also this year I will move to live in Madrid, where I was invited to work in a renowned art workshop and I will stay living in Europe for a year or more.
Do you have any upcoming events or exhibitions we should know about?
This year in March 17 I will exhibit with Galeria Zero in New York and in April 18 till 24, in World Art Dubai and in Gallery 76, Dubai from April 24 to May 1. After those experiences I will exhibit at Art Basel, Switzerland with Galeria Zero.
Where do you see your art going in five years?
Everywhere in the world. I want to share my proposal everywhere and learn more from new places and new people.
