“I Only know what I intended to do once it’s finished“
—Paul Bowles

The term “snapshot,” perfectly captures the idea of what happens in photographs: frozen instants, the shards of time captured by our cameras, are collected in my extensive archive of photographic images. The raw material I use to make my work is drawn from my archive of photographic imagery I’ve gathered over the decades. When I am brought up short by these frozen instants, in a practice I refer to as “searching the dig for relics,” fragments of the past are unearthed and fashioned into digital montage. Transported to the present as electronic paintings, they become unique archaeologies of reordered memory. Every new piece is distilled from this data vault which includes images of people, art historical references, travel, screen grabs from television, clips from newspapers, magazines, and the internet, and any of the mundane and curious discards of consumer culture that populate thrift stores.  I also draw from my decades of studio work - pen and ink drawings, woodblock prints, and sculpture from the 1970’s; monoprints and paintings from the 1980’s; text-based computer and photo generated work from the 1990’s - each a memory I can excavate from the past and fold into new work.  Essentially, anything that brings me up short, makes an impression, or promises to breathe understanding of the relationship between past and present finds its way into my work. 

Martin Steele (b. 1949) Los Angeles, CA 

Solo Exhibitions 

2023: Collier Gallery at CTP “Bright Fictions”, Medford, OR

2023: The Artlounge Collective, “Transitory Two”

2023: The Rogue Gallery & Art Center, “The Archaeology of Memory”, Medford, OR

2021: Medford Coop Café, Medford, OR

2019: The Rogue Grape, Medford, OR

2018: Gallery 417, “Without You I’m Nothing” Los Angeles, CA

2018: Arena 1 Gallery, “Transitory 2017”, Santa Monica, CA

1986: Lizardi/Harp Gallery, Pasadena, CA 

1985: Roark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1983: Hana Gallery, Venice, CA

1975: Bowinkle Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA

Reviews and Publications 

“Worlds within Planes: Martin Steele, the Flaneur, and Twenty-First Century Painting”, Carter Mull, 2018 

"Oil, Linen, and Steele", Orville 0. Clarke Jr., Art Critic, Los Angeles Reader, April 5, 1985. 

"Monoprints are a simple medium ... " Christopher Knight, Art Critic, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, May 12, 1983. 

“Available Light”, Eye 8, Editor: Kristin Zethren, published in a limited edition of 150 copies, Fall 1983.