Eleanor Harwood Gallery is thrilled to announce Martin Machado’s second solo show with the gallery: “Fine Dine the Demons.” The show will be on view from May 3rd through June 21st, 2025. The opening reception will be on May 3rd, from 5-7 pm.
This exhibition consists of paintings made by Martin Machado throughout the last year. In this group of works, Machado continues to develop several ongoing series relating to the natural world’s cycles and his experience working on the water as a commercial fisherman and merchant mariner. The ship’s wake plays the largest role in the show, carrying the viewer between the time and place of the other pieces; from one month’s full moon phase to a far-off shoreline. The repetition in these works illustrates the artists’ fascination with the passing of time, the blurring of memory, as well as the blessing and curse that labor plays in our lives. As seen in his previous exhibition, most of the “Wake Series” works are painted in oil, both on linen and on nautical charts collected from international containerships Machado worked on as a merchant mariner. However, many of these recent paintings have a color palette that has shifted closer to his nocturnes. The highlights on the water are at times muted in a sepia that could be seen as reflecting a smoke-filled sky, while in others, a golden hue like the slivers of sunlight breaking through a storm. The moodiness of these works is also reflected in the show’s title, “Fine Dine the Demons,” borrowed from the lyrics of musician Adrienne Lenker’s song titled “Once A Bunch.” In the chorus, Lenker sings out, “half a margarita, have a little dance, let’s fine dine the demons and give peace a chance.” With equal parts gallows humor and heartfelt optimism, Machado searches for a ray of light in the hopelessness of our collective consciousness.
Both in the hanging of this exhibition and in his practice, Martin alternates between Plein Air paintings and studio-based works. During the Covid lockdown, he began painting outdoors at night to capture each month’s full moon and has kept up the practice. These moon paintings are typically created along the different waterfronts of San Francisco, pre-planned to try to catch the moonrise or set over the water. Weather always brings unique challenges, and of course, the darkness itself has a role in the works. “In some ways it’s like painting with a blindfold on” says Machado, “I like the surprises painting in the dark can bring, and I try to carry those discoveries into my studio-based work”.
In addition to the large group of oil paintings is a cluster of smaller works on paper. The ship’s wake once again is the focus of this group, this time translated with blue ink. In two works, the artist harkens back to an earlier series in his oeuvre, in which he references European colonial expedition etchings and replaces their boats with contemporary floating shipping containers. The works are delicate and ephemeral, serious and humorous.
Artist Bio
Martin Machado was born in 1980 in San Jose, California. He received a BFA from UC Santa Barbara in 2003 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007. Machado’s work has been shown internationally and has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Magazine, Juxtapoz, New American Paintings, and most recently The Surfer’s Journal. Currently holding a USCG licensed 100 ton Master and an “AB” Able Bodied Sailor limited endorsement, Machado is a member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Kvichak Setnetters Association. In his years in the maritime industry, he has worked on a wide range of vessels, from a tall ship and modern sailing charters to commercial fishing boats, container ships, and oil spill cleanup ships.
For over two decades, Martin has had his feet in two very different endeavors, that of the art world and of the maritime industry. His labor on the water has taken him around the globe on international containerships, commercial fishing vessels, and sailing boats. The ports and the people he has worked alongside have become intertwined with the layers of his art, a visual storytelling that is based on his own experience, but reaches back to the history of maritime exploration and our core human connections to the sea.
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