Michael Craig-Martin
°1941, Dublin (IR) – lives and works in London (UK)
A principal figure of British conceptual art, Sir Michael Craig-Martin probes the relationship between objects and images, harnessing the human capacity to imagine absent forms through symbols and pictures. The perceptual tension between object, representation, and language has been his central concern over the past four decades.
In his early work, Craig-Martin often incorporated readymades into sculpture and made knowing references to American Minimalism. His elegant restraint and conceptual clarity are exemplified by An Oak Tree (1973), comprising a glass of water on a shelf and a text written by him asserting that the glass of water is, in fact, an oak tree. This interest in semantics, the play between rhetoric and object, continues to be a core theme in his work.
In the 1990s, Craig-Martin made a decisive shift to painting and developed his hallmark style of precise, bold outlines demarcating flat planes of intensely vibrant colours. Through exacting draughtsmanship, he uses composition to explore spatial relationships by juxtaposing and layering colour.
(courtesy of Gagosian)
Michael Craig-Martin – Transitional Objects, exhibition view at Carling Dalenson Gallery, Stockholm in 2021
Michael Craig-Martin – Zoom, 2020
Michael Craig-Martin – Transience, exhibition view at Serpentine Gallery, London in 2016
Michael Craig-Martin – Untitled (guitar), 2018
Michael Craig-Martin – Always Now, 1998
Craig-Martin’s work has been featured by solo museum exhibitions worldwide, including Kunstverein Hannover; Institut Valencià d’Art Modern; Museum of Modern Art – Berardo Collection, Lisbon; IMMA, Dublin; Kunsthaus Bregenz and Serpentine Gallery, London. Craig-Martin’s work is featured in various public collections, including the MoMA, New York; Tate, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.
Craig-Martin was an Artist Trustee of Tate from 1989 to 1999 and was elected to the Royal Academy in 2006. In 2016 he was knighted in the Queens Birthday Honours for his services to art.
Michael Craig-Martin is represented by the following galleries;
click through to discover more of her work.
Gagosian, New York / London / Paris / Hong Kong / …
You can also discover plenty more about Michael Craig-Martin’s work on his own website.
Michael Craig-Martin – Sculpture, exhibition view at Gagosian Gallery, London in 2019
Michael Craig-Martin – High Heel (Pink), 2013
Michael Craig-Martin – Floating World, 1994
Michael Craig-Martin – Bulb (Red), 2011
Michael Craig-Martin – Street Life, 2009
