Martina Nehrling

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Martina Nehrling is a Chicago-based artist who received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the University of Chicago. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lake Forest College, and for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Chicago Arts Program. She has been awarded grants by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, and has presented her work at the Art Institute of Chicago Artists Connect Lecture Series. Kingston, New York and her home town of Indianapolis, Indiana feature her work in their city public art installations. Her work is internationally exhibited and part of many public and private collections.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Seduced by the formal complexity of color, I revel in its emotive slipperiness and enjoy mining its controversial decorativeness. The inextricability of these aspects unique to color continually spurs my engagement. Tuned to the vivid and continuous absurd disparities of daily life, I weave visual rhythms—resonant, discordant, muscular, mellifluous—in patterns akin to currents and eddies, note taking, list making, pixilation and mapping. I use multiple distinct brushstrokes for their staccato quality and graphic directness, and employ highly saturated chroma for its insistence, its unapologetic hysteria, its mirth and its madness. With this tensile language I explore what it means to be here, musing or ranting in lush celebration, high-pitched lament, or raucous rebellion.