Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision

Los Angeles • Art & Culture

The Flame of Love

We fall for the intricate matchbook portraits of Joseph Martinez...

Rob Wilkes •

If you wear glasses, bring them, or the joys of Joseph Martinez’s intricate exhibition will pass you by. Steady Hands, Blurry Vision at Soze Gallery, Los Angeles, features a number of the artist’s trademark miniature works: beautiful oil paintings skilfully rendered on the insides of matchbooks. The paintings, often of female nudes, are lent a poignant fragility by their circumstances, flanked or caged by the matches which could ignite and consume them at any moment. The level of detail is a real mind-blower – if, like me, you have trouble seeing the TV at 10 paces, it’s as fine an advert for corrective laser surgery as there is.

Martinez, a self-taught artist from Denver, also works on a larger scale, and this exhibition will include a number of bigger pieces in a variety of media. Steady Hands, Blurry Vision is Martinez’s first solo gallery show (a tricky prospect to stage I should imagine); it’s on now and runs until 21 February.

@sozegallery

Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision

Photo, Jordan Ahern

Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision Joseph Martinez — Steady Hands, Blurry Vision

Images courtesy, Soze Gallery
© Joseph Martinez