SMI Academy Square Gallery
33 Plymouth Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
HOURS: Mon – Fri, 7am – 7pm
or by appointment
The show’s title, “Resurfacing” reflects Kasmin’s joyful return to the act of painting when she found herself with what she considers a “gift of time” bestowed to her during the isolation of the covid pandemic. From early in the pandemic— April 2020 —the artist embarked on a daily routine of painting that enabled her to feel that she had “come to the surface again, to breathe, as an artist.” Kasmin also describes resurfacing as a daily action, during which she finds herself “adding, subtracting, revising, and resurfacing each painting.” She works intuitively, thinking about making interesting and unique marks and observing the way colors respond to other colors, textures converse with other textures, and lines react to other lines. Her use of abstraction is informed by her interest in having the viewer spend time with her paintings to decipher and unravel the forms they see. According to the artist, “I am passionate about bringing images to their fruition through a magical alchemy that occurs when putting paint on canvas.”
Artist’s Statement
Resurfacing:
-to provide a new surface*
-to rise to the surface of the water again*
-to appear again after being lost, stolen, or absent*
*Cambridge English Dictionary
When I was thinking about a title for this show, the one that held most true for me was, resurfacing. That is what I had done and what I was in the act of doing every day since April, 2020, in my studio.
I had resurfaced. I had come to the surface again, to breathe, as an artist. The person I truly am. With goals that are sincere and meaningful to me. After many years of being absent, art was back in my life. COVID had given me the gift of time. Time brought me back to my studio with an “it’s now or never attitude” and a passion for painting that I hadn’t tapped into for quite a while. Resurfacing is also an action that occurs daily in my studio, adding, subtracting, revising, resurfacing each painting. Resurfacing, and the nuances of its meaning seemed the perfect theme for this body of work.
I found my way back to abstraction, to working intuitively. When I’m painting, I am thinking about making interesting and unique marks and about the way colors react to other colors, textures to other textures, lines to other lines. I use my memories and emotional responses to being a mother, a friend, and a nature lover to create exciting shapes, color relationships and linear qualities that react and respond beautifully and powerfully to each other. My paintings are primarily abstract because abstract art requires the viewer to spend time with it, to interpret it. As an artist, I want to invite the viewer to spend time with my paintings to decipher and unravel the forms that they see. I am passionate about bringing images to their fruition through a magical alchemy that occurs when putting paint on canvas.
Resurfacing, “to appear again after being lost or absent.” My work is a celebration of this concept, to self-awareness, to being and doing what you are meant to do, what you are most passionate about.
My current work is informed by 21st century painters and those from many years ago. The range of my influences extends from El Greco’s powerful skies to DeKooning’s beautiful fleshy abstractions to Soutine’s brilliant brushwork. I’m also drawn to Rita Ackermann’s exquisite use of line and Cecily Brown’s sensuous figures and stunning use of light. I am constantly looking to art history to grow the emotional and technical depth of my work.
About The Artist
Martine Kasmin is an accomplished NJ artist whose work currently focuses on abstract painting. She received her BFA degree from the School of Visual Arts in NYC followed by a Master of Education as a certified teacher of students with special needs from College of Saint Elizabeth in NJ. She has also worked as a freelance illustrator for such clients as New York Magazine, MTV Networks, Musician Magazine, American Illustration, Datamation Magazine, and Art Direction Magazine. She has had two solo exhibitions in NJ along extensive showings in juried group exhibitions.