Martyn Reynolds: Aotearoa Art Fair

Sumer is delighted to be participating in the 2024 edition of Aotearoa Art Fair, with a solo presentation by Vienna-based New Zealand artist, Martyn Reynolds. This is the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery. A solo exhibition in the main gallery is also planned for early 2025.  

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Hook and hammer. This is how the artist refers to the recurrent forms in his recent sculptural work. As objects they are curious, familiar and yet not. They resemble such tools, as they do archways, doors, religious icons, glyphs, symbols, portals. They also seem somehow incomplete; possibly due to their asymmetry, or perhaps for how they have been crafted. Many times they appear in the form of sculptural relief, produced in aluminium. Cast from forms cut in rough construction ply, their casting fine enough to hold the wood grain, yet with rough edges that could be either a splintered edge or casting slag. They are then anodised, producing a clear (gunmetal grey) or black patina, upon which small images are often overprinted. 

There is a pronounced elusiveness in Reynolds’ work. Not only in terms of possible intent/meaning, but also its materiality and form. With his preference of working in materials such as aluminium and velvet, and with a restricted palette of predominantly silvers and blacks, they appear simultaneously svelte, elegant, refined, and also brutal, glib. Yet these seemingly contradictory aspects do not seem discordant. Nowadays, contradiction and paradox seem more normal than not. (Cognative Dissonance the buzzword du jour, especially amongst popular commentators who want to sound deep.) We see it everywhere, from politics to high fashion. For instance, the aesthetics that one associates with contemporary luxury goods equally recall those of authoritarian regimes of the present and recent past (soviet, fascist, and islamic). And we can no longer dismiss them as mere kitsch, for there is no certainty of irony being at play.  

Of the small images peppered throughout these works, describing them as thumbnails, tiles, or icons, seems appropriate: of how one might refer to them within the context of software. They hover, asymmetrically, over grounds too broad to be borders. They are not the work’s sole subject, rather clippings within a larger terrain. The subjects of these thumbnails vary, yet are similarly modest, unspectacular (though not insignificant, or lacking in charm or intrigue). Some are pretty, others funny (not ha ha): flowers (peonies), cars (Jeep Cherokee), food packaging (UAE Burger King). Others feature people. Sometimes they tessellate at different scales in differing orientations (not unlike the photos you might get from a chemist, or Pixie Photo). 

The ones that depict people are not portraits but rather scenes. They depict scenarios. People in everyday interactions: greeting, eating, lounging, speaking. The identity of the individuals in some of the smallest images is difficult to discern, but they are evidently political or popular figures whose faces, often circulated in mass media, have been lifted from a screen, magazine or newspaper. In some, foreign dignitaries shake hands on a tarmac or pose at a press conference, in others, pop stars do ‘common’ things for reality TV. The two works Shoes on the Sofa Tapestry and Liberalism Moodboard contain a selection of seemingly unrelated thumbnails - stills from sitcoms or reality TV shows, depicting celebrities reclining on a couch, the soles of their shoes planted squarely on the sofa cushions and international leaders meet in formal congregations. Between them, a harmonious discord: hooks and hammers, luxury and poverty, Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai, the Kardashians, Emmanuel Macron and Manuel Valls. Liberalism, authoritarianism, libertarianism, the bourgeoisie, contemporary art. It all makes total sense.

Martyn Reynolds (b. 1981, Philadelphia, U.S.A.) lives and works in Vienna, Austria. He studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Exhibition highlights include presentations with 21er Haus, Vienna; Rogland Kunstsenter, Stavanger; La Salle de Bains, Lyon; Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland; Louis Reed, New York; Sydney, Sydney; Gloria Knight, Auckland; and Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland. He has also previously worked as a studio assistant for artist and writer Josef Strau, and is credited as the originator of the title for Hito Steyerl's publication "Too Much World”.