Martin Daiber’s gorgeous paintings are like windows through which to look at more paintings, as if they have been woven and layered together on the canvas. Find much more at the links following the interview!
Can you tell me a little bit about you?
I’m a Chilean artist based in Chile. Since I finished art school I’ve been working and researching by myself in the fields of painting and sculpture. I usually work through series of works experimenting with different materials or themes on each series. I like the idea of moving to new places. I need that kind of vertigo in creation.
When did you first discover art, or realize you wanted to make it yourself?
It was when I was a kid. My grandfather was a painter, so art was there. As a teenager I realized I wanted to do it myself.
What ideas are you exploring in your practice?
I’m interested in the subconscious and its effects in my creation process. In recent years I’ve been focusing on letting this subjective part of me grow, and working in the most free way. Everything I experience in life is welcome to be part of my work — this idea in connection with art history and formal elements (color, forms, rhythm, composition, etc.) makes the art work.
What is your process like?
I usually don’t have a plan. I just go through it, typically working on several pieces at the same time. As time goes on, the work changes, it evolves. Ideas and decisions get intertwined, corrupted, and mutilated to finally attain a common end. It’s an end that I sense and do not know; intangible, a floating image whose essence I only perceive, and that gets more substantial as the work goes on. The path is therefore uncertain, and that makes the process more and more interesting, especially in the end, when I end up recognizing the image I intuited. This process can take sometimes days, other times months. It’s not up to me…
Do you have a mentor, or a piece of advice (or both), which has influenced your practice?
“Art is work” says Albert Oehlen.
What is your studio like?
It’s a quiet and beautiful room in an old house close to Santiago city center:
What do you find most daunting, challenging, or frustrating about pursuing art?
The challenge is to find the purest connection with art that allows you to make the truest and best art works. The frustrating thing is to make money with art…
What are three words you would use to describe your work?
formalist subconscious compositions
What are you working on right now?
Now I’m working in a series of ten paintings, very focused in color and temperature and in a more geometric approach to composition.
Find more at martindaiber.com and on Instagram @martindaiber!
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