Mauro C. Martinez : Practice Makes Purrfect

Fun exhibition at Unit of new work by Mauro C. Martinez.

These oil paintings were all of lone tennis players mimicking the aesthetics of sports photography with the close-cropped image and deep shadows. It took me a moment to realise he’d replaced the shadow of the ball with that of a cat, hence the title.

I did like the colour and action of them. You don’t often see paintings of sport. I found them slightly cruder in the flesh than they’d looked in the publicity email but I guess that reflected the effect of zooming into an image.

The commentary was interesting pointing out how Martinez is trying to move into series of pictures to examine repetition.

Closed 3 February 2024

 

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