Esther Martens (b. 1992) is a Viennese and Canadian artist based in Vienna, Austria who completed an MA with distinction in Painting and Animation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2020. Martens primarily works with oil on canvas and oil on copper by painting expressionistic and abstract figurines that oscillate between conditions of the human and non-human, such as animals and folkloric characters. Distinct to her approach and inspiration, Martens will source porcelain objects from auctions, flea-markets and the internet to create an eerie pastiche of motifs on the canvas, that translate the inanimate glossy three-dimensional materiality of porcelain onto the two-dimensional canvas through paint. As such, the work depicts speculative spaces encapsulated by strange phantasmagoric and absurdist figurative compositions. The transformed motifs on the canvas of the acquired porcelain objects, indeed, are charged with imperialist histories and Martens takes importance in highlighting as well as unearthing controversial subjects within class-struggle, race and gender politics. Recent renown group exhibitions include VinVin Gallery (2023), Parallel Vienna, ‘Footloose’ (2020), Krinzinger Projekte / Krinzinger Galerie, ‘Tomorrow is Cancelled’ (2018) and MAK, ‘Ästhetik der Veränderung’ (2018).
contact : estherhelgamartens@gmail.com