Sergio Martinez

About this artist

Biography

Sergio has been a well-known figurative painter since the 1990s, and he particularly enjoys exploring the effect of light on the human body, whether indoors or, say, at the beach. He primarily paints oil on linen, overlapping thin layers as a grisaille of soft colors, and then, layer by layer, intensifying the colors to achieve the atmosphere he intends to infuse into the scene. Over his artistic lifetime, Sergio has experienced several journeys: in terms of genre, treatment of his subjects, and geography. In 2004, he relocated from his native Chile to Madrid, his new home from where he stays in touch with his artistic network in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. After marrying Lizeth, his descriptive realist landscapes, noted for their mastery of form and an elegant use of color akin to the Pre-Rafaelites, made way for an interest in depicting the human form. Lizeth was the first subject for his portraits and nudes, followed by many others. Since 2016, the world of dance has become a favorite setting for his works. “Ballerinas or dancers take comfort in each other, confide in each other, wait for auditions, peek at the audience from behind the curtains, and they apply make-up,” comments Sergio. “Whatever you have to say, whether simple or complicated, is transformed into beauty when it is said by the gestures or movements of these magical performers. Sergio’s works grow from an interesting contrast between meticulous planning and an amazingly spontaneous artistic intuition—which he off-handedly explains as “I plan just enough to be creative.” Sergio is often friends with his models, which allows unique ideas to form, that would be unlikely to emerge if he and his models remained strangers. Kiki Kim, Chef Curator of the IBEX Collection, notes: “Sergio typically portrays his female subjects as strong, confident women, comfortable in transcending traditional societal gender-roles, quite in contrast with the constrained ‘opera rats’ of ballerinas in, say, Degas’ work.” Sergio has exhibited at many prestigious galleries around the world, from the US to the UK, across Europe and in Dubai.