Tears of Rage

Against a brilliant blue ground, spectral forms yield to colourful streaks in Eddie Martinez’s Tears of Rage, 2014, a vivacious image and lusciously tactile palimpsest. Chromatic collisions and collaged elements explode and receded characteristically within the present work. Martinez is known for his hypnotically frenetic compositions which renders figurative imagery abstract; for the past decade, he has made small drawings which he then magnifies. Born in Connecticut, Martinez has lived all over the United States, and his paintings espouse a similarly expansive outlook. Accordingly, Martinez is inspired by a diversity of sources, and in his loose, gestural aesthetic are traces of Abstract Expressionism. Like his Modernist predecessors, Martinez is similarly invested in the potential of paint to assume numerous shapes and identities, yet his works refuse a simplistic reading. These historical allusions are refracted through the brash, confident visual idiom of street art. Reflecting upon his audacious approach and the importance of speed and conviction, Martinez said, ‘I'm trying to be quiet. I never abandoned the materials. It's all about pushing the paintings. These works feel like large works on paper, in terms of the speed, the recklessness. They're not precious. I like the immediacy of drawings’ (E. Martinez quoted in C. Blair, ‘Studio Visit: Artist Eddie Martinez’, Forbes, 3 March 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/courtneywillisblair/2016/03/03/studio-visit-eddie-martinez/#4f8968141d4d).