September 4 - October 3, 2020
A solo exhibition featuring work by Ender Martos.
“Artist Statement:
I use geometry, repetition, color, and volume to create dynamic, visually striking work that shifts as viewers move around it. The effect relies on the meticulous layering of fluorescent colors and oscillating, rhythmic line-work that reveals as it occurs, changing the scene with every step viewers take. As reality changes in the viewer’s eye, perception itself becomes visible, revealing the fluid nature of reality. The pieces themselves don’t change; the viewer’s vantage point does. The spatial relationship between viewer and object draws from my transnational story. Migration is change and contrast, but it’s also connection and sameness. I draw from my experience in hyper-structured U.S. society and the rich, organic, and vibrant fragility of Venezuela, my home country. My dual immersion inspired the contrast and connection that make optical illusion possible in my work. My work is deeply influenced by my upbringing in the Andes of Venezuela. The language of the structure was revealed to me through the elegance of the temperamental mountain peaks I grew up in, where each crease is the precise expression of natural force. While my early artistic foundation stemmed from five years of technical drawing in Merida, Venezuela, my academic experiences at the University of Texas germinated the idea for relocating the lines of my structural drawings and rich colors into three-dimensional forms. Interactivity is at the core of the work, but its construction is entirely analog. I use Plexiglas, monofilament, acrylics, and aluminum, and meticulously engineer each piece. I arrange the translucent filament, so light travels in, through, and out, creating a sense of movement. Most of my artworks rely on precise rhythm, light, polychromatic lines, shapes and spaces. My most recent work explores the reflective surfaces as a means for connection between artist, artwork, and audience. By incorporating colored mirrored Plexiglas, I include the audience’s likeness in the work. My story becomes theirs as viewers experience the tension between their familiar image and the visual richness of the work as it changes. In this current work, I aim to test the boundaries of authorship, belonging, perspective and the self as narrative. Who does perspective belong to? How does our vantage point change what we experience? And, finally, what happens when our own identities are part of the equation?
Artist Bio:
Ender Martos’ work is best known for creating impactful sensory experiences that include optical movement and engage viewers with the boundary and curiosity of human perception. Utilizing a variety of vibrant translucent and reflective materials such as monofilament & colored mirrored Plexiglas, Martos specializes in creating colorful three-dimensional installations to stimulate light-sensitive experiences of optical movement that shift the viewer’s perception with every step. Martos’ work is influenced by the Op Art genre that uses optical illusions to give viewers a sense of movement and patterns. Being especially influenced by sculptural norms, his work moves beyond the traditional two-dimensions and instead relocates the graphic lines of his early technical drawing background into visceral, exploding forms in space. Ender Martos’ work is a direct product of his upbringing in Mérida, Venezuela, a city enveloped by a geometric tectonic formation that was built in the colorful Andes Mountains, where each visual crease and slope is carefully formed by the intentionality of natural forces. His artworks reflect this influence by including precise multi-chromatic lines, shapes and spaces to create a sacred and meditative visual experience. Martos’ earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and is currently represented by Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art Gallery in Dallas, TX. He has exhibited in multiple galleries and shows in Chicago, IL, Mexico City & Monterrey, Mexico, Miami, FL, Houston, TX, Marfa, TX, Georgetown, TX and Austin, TX since 2004. His art installations have been commissioned by multiple transnational corporations such as Facebook, he was a regional finalist in the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series in SCOPE, Miami FL, and he was a recipient of the 2019 Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Culture Center Award of Excellence, Austin, TX.”
Fort Worth Community Arts Center - FWCAC
1300 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, 76107 TX
817-738-1938
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