Martin Bell

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

 

                                                                            

Martin Bell ‘Martin Son of the Universe, what me worry’ 2019 (details), ink on BFK Rives paper, 56 x 76 cm each sheet; 280 x 1140 cm overall; (75 sheets configured in 5 rows of 15 sheets). Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales
Real Worlds: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2020 at Art Gallery of New South Wales. Martin Bell ‘Martin Son of the Universe, what me worry’ 2019 (details), ink on BFK Rives paper, 56 x 76 cm each sheet; 280 x 1140 cm overall; (75 sheets configured in 5 rows of 15 sheets). Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales
Martin Bell ‘Martin Son of the Universe, what me worry’ 2019, ink on BFK Rives paper, 56 x 76 cm each sheet; 280 x 1140 cm overall; (75 sheets configured in 5 rows of 15 sheets). Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales
An Australian Landscape 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3. Collection of National Gallery of Australia
An Australian Landscape (detail) 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3
An Australian Landscape (detail) 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3
An Australian Landscape (detail) 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3
An Australian Landscape (detail) 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3
An Australian Landscape (detail) 2016 - 2017
Ink on BFK Rives paper
75 sheets, paper size 56 x 76 cm 280 cm x 11.4 m
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 3
Skull Gully II 2013
Installation view