Martin Bell works across various mediums including collage, photography and sculpture. His work has been exhibited at Hell Gallery, Melbourne, the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales and in association with the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Like a Piranesi prison, there is no escaping from Bell’s drawings. There is nowhere to rest the eye, with chaos filling every space. Homes appear as castles in a feudal society. Woven within that society are Bell’s characters, trapped within the drawing’s sprawling architecture. Rarely are Bell’s characters at rest, but even when they appear motionless, there persists a futile struggle for space and harmony.
Peter Drew, Catalogue essay, 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart
