Martin Bell
Martin Bell works across various mediums including collage, photography and sculpture. His work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria, 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, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart, 2014
Read Martin Bell, ‘Batavia, an Allegory of Good and Bad Government, After Lorenzetti’ 2024 exhibition essay.
Exhibitions
Martin Bell
Batavia, an Allegory of Good and Bad Government, After Lorenzetti
Bell makes his painting debut in his fifth solo exhibition with one monumental work on 75 ply panels arranged in a 5 x 15 formation, overall size 2.8 x 11.4 metres. Batavia, an Allegory of Good and Bad Government, After Lorenzetti is a grand history painting executed in a free and vigorous cartoon-like style. Installed […]
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