Marta Marcé
Marta Marcé makes large scale abstract paintings which at times have become site specific installations, sprawling across the stairwell at Camden Arts Centre, London or incorporating plastic balls on sand covered floor at CCA, Mallorca, Spain.
In her work, Marcé explores the abstract systems we use both consciously and unconsciously to govern our lives, and often incorporates into her paintings the rules of games as models for this. Alongside this subject, Marcé's work is deeply rooted within the discourse of painting. Equipt with her predecided set of rules, the artist negotiates the boundaries of the canvas and the limitations of paint, as well as the conceptual constraints of making a painting. In her use of vibrant colours, rhythmic application of paint and positioning of spots, stripes and circles there remains a sense that the artist is playing a game and enjoying it.
In Pinballing (2009), a piece developed for the waiting rooms of Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, Marcé makes direct reference to the popular arcade game of pinball by using the shapes and motifs which decorate its surface. Scattered across the walls of the space, the incremental function the shapes once had within the game is dismantled and Marcé transforms their rigourous nature into a playful, self evolving system.
In Cromocosmic, exhibited at CCA Mallorca (2009), Marcé delves into the relationship geometry has with philosophy and quantum mechanics. The piece incorporates the entire gallery space through two distinct yet complimentary elements of a wall drawing and floor-based installation. In this way, correlations between space and movement are made apparent as atom-like spots, drawn on the walls seem to evolve into plastic coloured balls placed within a sandpit in the centre of the gallery. Important in the work is the reflection on how energy is constantly transforming the elements within the piece and their details of form and colour.
Marta Marcé lives and works in London. Her work has been shown internationally in group - and solo exhibitions including: Reframing, CCA, Mallorca, Spain (2009); John Moores 25, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2008); Games and Theory, South London Gallery (2008); Encounters, Moriarty Gallery, Madrid (2007); Slipping Abstraction, Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK (2007); Pasajero, Riflemaker Gallery, London (2006); Nice to meet you, Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles (2006) and Sensorial Material, Bohhams Gallery, London (2006).
Her work was also nominated for the Jerwood Painting Prize 2001, touring at Jerwood Gallery, London and Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow.
