In large-scale, elaborate oil work of highly effective, glowing creatures, Martin Wittfooth explores the timeless cycles and forces of nature in a celebration of the chic. Recognized for his enigmatic and atmospheric depictions of untamed animals in dystopian settings, the artist blends conventional European portray methods with important up to date issues surrounding the human influence on the atmosphere.
Wittfooth’s new solo exhibition, Deus Ex Terra at Corey Helford Gallery, options 19 new oil work on canvas, linen, or wooden panels. Some take the type of tondos 18 to 24 inches in diameter, whereas others assume huge proportions, like “Duel,” a diptych that spans 12 toes broad. The stallion additionally seems as an everyday embodiment of elemental forces, like in “Aspect of Fire” or “Aspect of Air,” by which silhouettes of highly effective horses manufactured from molten rock or clouds of steam rear up into towering positions.
The present’s title, Deux Ex Terra, loosely interprets to “god out of the earth.” It’s a nod to the traditional Greek and Roman phrase deux ex machina, which describes a dramatic or literary system by which a personality or a “god” is launched into the plot to resolve a seemingly insolvable battle. Throughout a play, the character could be launched by way of a crane, therefore the “machine.” Wittfooth flips this notion again to nature and the fundamental forces of the earth—climate, orbits, the seasons, life, water—to discover cyclical, self-sustaining rhythms.
“The Hermetic maxim, ‘As above, so below; As within, so without,’ has echoed through centuries of philosophical, mystical, and artistic inquiry,” the gallery says. “In Deus ex Terra, this principle serves as a guiding thread, illuminating the ways nature repeats its patterns across scale and time: in the branching of rivers and the veins of leaves, in the spiral of galaxies and the coiling of shells, in the cyclical turning of seasons and the rhythms of breath and heartbeat.”
In earlier work, Wittfooth targeting the strained relationship between people and nature, with its results revealed within the type of piles of plastic or shorn tree trunks. In his present work, he displays on the instinctive and enduring aspects of nature—the “ancient rhythms that prevail despite our human tumult,” the gallery says. “In a time of deep cultural and ecological upheaval, these paintings offer an invitation to acknowledge, to remember, and perhaps to heal.”
Deus Ex Terra opens tomorrow and continues via October 4 in Los Angeles. Discover extra on the artist’s web site and Instagram.
