Bio
A painter who tattoos
Steve Martin is a recognized and award-winning American artist, who produces work sought and collected for continuing the impressionist and plein air traditions. He holds a BFA in Painting and a MA in Graphic Design from The Savannah College of Art and Design while having also extensively studied illustration, film photography, and printmaking. In those 6 years he learned under Joshua Yu, Mohamed Danawi, Robert Brown, Cynthia Lollis, Michael Rich, and Peter Wong.
Martin has a 19 year career in exhibiting his art as well as curating for galleries. Today he operates Black Moth in Ardmore, PA which exhibits a wide range of contemporary art all year. He has been a long time member of the Chester County Art Center in his hometown of West Chester, PA. Martin’s paintings have been featured in 9 solo-exhibitions and has showcased various works in over 35 art galleries throughout the United States including the Barnes Foundation, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Annual US Artists as well as at City Hall in Philadelphia.
As a painter, tattooer, and adventurer he has traveled throughout the Americas and Europe, working and learning cultural values and aesthetics from a wide range of influences, which inevitably are reflected in his work. He holds a personal and endearing connection to the rolling landscapes of Pennsylvania, especially those of Chester County, but also the rigid, towering, and layered structures of bustling cities like Philadelphia which equally captivate his attention.
Artist Statement
Imagery of civilization both modern and ancient. All time was the present once, all time will fade away, all ideas and methods were at one time new perhaps revolutionary and inevitably will be surpassed.
We have seen much change in our own lives, it is through documentation we see further comparisons. Here I make my mark and preserve a moment in time, for us to experience now, and for others to think back upon the here and now.
My passion is to explore and experiment, as the human condition is equally enjoyable as it is trying, I seek out the aesthetically pleasing. I maintain a relevance to the moment in my work even within the studio, something energetic, with the allowance for chance. For me there is a dialogue with the medium, ever familiar as well as challenging, always greatly rewarding.
"Philly Steve" Martin 