Martin Basher Birds of Paradise, 2022, Anat Ebgi, Installation view
About
Martin Basher’s painting and sculptural work is situated in the lineage of display-based artistic practices. Working with the languages of retail and advertising, Basher explores the emotional charge of common objects and images. From his trademark paintings of gradated stripes and photo-real beaches to sculptural installations serving as displays for consumer goods, Basher activates spaces of sublimated psychological desire, at once familiar and strange for the altered retail scenarios they present. In these complex displays, Basher invokes unspoken drives, and the mundane and exclusive, the highbrow and lowbrow, and the public and private impulses that inform us as consuming individuals.
Martin Basher (b. 1979, Wellington, New Zealand) holds a BA (2003) and MFA (2008) from Columbia University in New York and a DocFA (2018) from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Basher’s work has been shown internationally at galleries and public institutions including the University of Connecticut; Art In General; Auckland Art Gallery; and Starkwhite, Auckland; Brand New Gallery; and The Public Art Fund. Basher lives and works in New York City.
The exhibition features a collection of still life paintings with highly stylized arrangements of Birds of Paradise flowers and abstract botanicals. — Julia Smith
“Strawberry Coconut Cream Pie” revisits Martin Basher’s ongoing conversation on the sublimated desires intertwined with consumer display. — Pearl Fontaine
The artist’s now-trademark panels, their vertical stripes standardized at uniform intervals, circled the walls of the two rooms, effecting an environment of superfluity—albeit an excess undercut by the differences between the compositions. —Suzanne Hudson
The New Academy, Lehman Art Center, North Andover, MA
Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
Summer Mixtape, Exit Art, New York, NY
Prescience, Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition. Fisher-Landau Center, Queens, NY
Supernatural. Thierry Goldberg Projects, New York, NY
2007
2007 ARTSPACE Editions. ARTSPACE, Auckland, NZ
Vanishing Point, Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington, NZ
Dream Wheels, Mahara Gallery, Waikanae, NZ
First Year MFA Exhibition. Columbia University, New York, NY
2006
HEADWAY. ARTSPACE, Auckland, NZ
Western Way. Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington, NZ
Curatorial Projects
2010
Lovers, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ; Kevin Appel, Martin Basher, Whitney Bedford, Tamar Halpern, Amy Howden-Chapman, Kate Newby, Peter Nicholls, Brie Ruais, Layla Rudneva-MacKay, David Scanavino and Gordon Walters
2009
Dance Sons and Daughters Dance!, The Physics Room, Christchurch, NZ, and Gambia Castle, Auckland, NZ, Leigh Ledare, Rashawn Griffin, Mads Lynnerup, Colby Bird and Wu Ingrid Tsang
2008
The Leisure Suite, Leroy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, Beth Campbell, Tim Davis, Friedrich Kurnath, Matt Keegan, Keren Cytter, Kate Gilmore, Michael Schmelling, Divya Mehra, Ben Turner
Selected Bibliography
2018
Fontaine, Pearl, "Marilyn Minter, Sol LeWitt, Martin Basher, and Other Must See Shows in Los Angeles This Week," Whitewall Magazine, May 24, 2018. (Link)
Hemer, André, "An interview with Martin Basher," Contemporary HUM, March 16, 2018. (Link)
2017
“Im/material; Painting in the Digital Age,” Londonews, November 15, 2017. (Link)
“The Top 8 Art Exhibitions to see in London this week,” FAD Magazine, November 12, 2017. (Link)
“Review: Im/material: Painting in the Digital Age (Sophia Contemporary),” FAD Magazine, October 25, 2017. (Link)
“Im/material,” Wall Street International, October 18, 2017. (Link)
“Must-See Art Guide: London,” Artnet News, October 5, 2017. (Link)
“Twenty Artists to Watch at the Armory Show,” Artsy.net, February 27, 2017. (Link)
2015
Hudson, Suzanne, “Martin Basher,” Artforum, October 2015. (Link)
Ghioni, Eloise, “A Guide to Benefits: Eloise Ghioni in dialogue with Martin Basher,” Fisk Frisk, July 10, 2015. (Link)
Horst, Aaron, “Martin Basher at Anat Ebgi,” Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, June 23, 2015. (Link)
Amery, Mark, “Collectors Love,” Art Collector Australia, Jan-Mar 2015: P114-119.
Hurrel, John, “Bleary bedazzled Drive To Acquire,” Eyecontact, Feb 13, 2015. (Link)
2014
Hurrel, John, “Basher as Curator,” Eyecontact, February 17, 2014. (Link)
2013
Hill, Kim, “Interview,” Radio New Zealand, October 30, 2013.
Hurell, John, “Consumerist Equivocation,” Eyecontact, February 19, 2013. (Link)
Macbamara, TJ, “A collection of sensations,” New Zealand Herald, February 16, 2013. (Link)
2012
Eichblatt, Sam, “The Green Point.” Home Magazine New Zealand, March 2012.
2011
Miller, Sam, “A New Take on Take Out,” Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2011.
Johnson, Ken, “Shows and Openings,” New York Times, July 22, 2011.
Chen, Joshua, “Public Art in New York,” La Vie Magazine, Taiwan, April 2012
2010
Sutton, Benjamin, “Recalling and Revisioning History in Downtown Brooklyn,” The L Magazine, November 24, 2010.
Shannon, Audrey, “Art as Alka-Seltzer,” Time Out New York, November 24, 2010.
Macnamara, TJ, “Tradition Revisited,” New Zealand Herald, November 21, 2010.
Hurrell, John, “Consumerism’s Tight Embrace,” Eyecontact.com, November 17, 2010.
Vogel, Carol, “Futuristic Public Art,” The New York Times, October 14, 2010.
Eichblatt, Sam, “Commercial Imperatives,” Metro New Zealand, May 2010.
Rosenberg, Bonnie, “Unspecific Objects,” City Arts New York Review of Culture, April 20, 2010, Vol 2 Issue 7.
Akel, Joseph, Unspecific Specificities, Idiom Magazine, March 2010.
Delikan, Sharu, All Quiet on The Western Front, The Aucklander, 3 March 2010.
2009
Schaer, Cathrin, “Foreign Affairs: How New Zealand Artists Are Working Abroad and Going Global,” (Cover and main feature), The New Zealand Herald’s Weekend Magazine, July 25, 2009.
Hanfling, Edward, “Free Spirit No Interest,” Art New Zealand, No 131, Winter 2009.
Gardiner, Sue, with Basher, Martin, et al., “On the State of Painting Today,” ARTNEWS, New Zealand, Winter 2009.
Macnamara, T.J., “A Portrait Beyond Face Value,” The New Zealand Herald, March 28 2009.
Hurrell, John, “Tentacles of Capitalism,” Eyecontact, March 2009
2008
“Recommended Viewing: Summer Mixtape at Exit Art,” Time Out Magazine, New York. August 28 –September 3 2008.
Fisher, Annie, “A Tale of Two Summer Art Openings,” The Village Voice, July 29, 2008.
Hurrell, John, “The Falling of Water and Light,” Eyecontact, April 2008.
2007
Ganderson, Adam, “Critic’s Pick: “Martin Basher at Inglett Gallery,” Artforum.com.
Shaw, Robyn, “Martin Basher: Blackwater,” New Zealand Moving Image and Performing Arts, Number 39 Winter 2007.
Hacking, Lily, “Online review: Vanishing Point – Mary Newton Gallery,” www.texture.co.nz
2006
Wood, Andrew Paul, “Interiors” New Zealand Listener, Vol 202, No 3433.
Farrar, Sarah, “Martin Basher’s ‘Blackwater’, The City Gallery, Wellington.
Howden-Chapman, Amy, “Headway New Artists Show 2006,” Catalogue.
ARTSPACE, Auckland, New Zealand. Online: www.artspace.org.nz
