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 was born in 1979 in Wellington, New Zealand and lives and works in New York. The artist received his MFA at Columbia University. He has shown internationally at public institutions including University of Connecticut, Art In General, Auckland Art Gallery, and The Public Art Fund. Recent solo exhibitions include Starkwhite, Auckland and Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. Basher has been included in group shows at 179 Canal, Tracy Williams, New York and Brand New Gallery, Milan. Basher has an upcoming solo exhibitions this year with Starkwhite, Auckland, and the University of Auckland and will present a solo exhibition at Anat Ebgi in early 2018
