Martin Maloney

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Saplings by Martin Maloney
Saplings by Martin Maloney

Martin Maloney (born 1961) is a contemporary English artist. He paints in a deliberately crude fashion.

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[edit] Life and work

Martin Maloney was born in London. He attended the University of Sussex 1980–83, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design 1988–91 and Goldsmiths College 1991–93.

Martin Maloney practises deliberately "bad" painting, where images (mainly figures) are achieved with apparently inept draughtsmanship and crude painting. Through his expressionistic style, bold colours, and sensitively humorous subject matter, Maloney's paintings record everyday experiences and moments of awkward intimacy. Often incorporating references to art history -- from Vermeer to Georg Baselitz -- Maloney's paintings render images of contemporary lifestyle within a linear framework of high culture tradition. He sees his work as a celebration of "the ordinariness of people", and wanted to elevate, for example, the stereotype image of the socially-deprived single mother. He has also said:

[I] joked to a friend that I was painting men I wanted to fuck and girls I wanted to be. The more I paint, the more I am learning about my fantasies and the reality of who I am and who I want to be.

He has been accused of making "childishly sweet and banal figure paintings" by art critic Julian Stallabrass.[1]

He was an exhibitor in the definitive Sensation show at the Royal Academy, London, in 1997. He also has exhibited in the New Neurotic Realism show held at the Saatchi Gallery.

Maloney is represented by Timothy Taylor Gallery in London.

He currently lives and works in London.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Don't Talk Maloney", Adrian Searle, The Guardian, February 1, 2000 Retrieved April 11, 2006

[edit] External links