Martin Durazo

Lives and works in Inglewood, CA, USA

Artist statement

For the past 20+ years I have created art in the form of painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. I explore the significance of objects and the intended use of place including sound, sight, touch and their relation to the human condition in order to offer a visual journey that draws the viewer in with an element of surprise each time they experience the work. I present shape, line, and color combinations that explore the correlation between aestheticized formalist principles and meditative mark making where washes of electric color stratified by varying depths of liquidity and fields of pulled opaque paint are layered upon the surface of the work. Delicate sutras of glitter, aerosol, and bursts of metallic paint create a sense of depth, focusing on the underlying impulses of the spiritual-abstract nexus. Overall, the works serve to unfold an allegory that is emblematic of a collective contemporary human experience of the subliminal. The intent of these works is to create a relationship to the idea of living in the present and are expressed through nautical gestures suggesting a parallel to life as a navigated experience and that offer a visual journey that does not replicate, exploring how humanity continues to exist in the face of ever-changing challenging environments that affect quality of life. With the bombardment of sensations that the modern world presents, it is becoming increasingly necessary to be more transcendental in nature. As a result, these works...

Artwork