[Artist] Martin Wittfooth

In an ocean full of debris, a polar bear with burning fur balances atop a corroded floating fridge and a red gas can. Flaming objects fall from the sky into arctic water where icebergs are a distant memory. Saints Preserve Us, a painting by artist Martin Wittfooth, is a scene from the worst collective nightmares of humanity, a grim forecast of the potential future of our planet.

“The animals in my work are absurdly out of their natural environment,” the Toronto-born artist explains. “I’m trying to create a world we’re all subconsciously afraid of.” He wonders, “What if this was to happen? What if this is where we’re headed?” Martin received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and has called Brooklyn home for the past four years. Since graduating, his dark vision has graced galleries throughout North America and Europe, with recent shows at Jonathan LeVine in New York, Copro Nason in Santa Monica and Yves Laroche in Montreal.

Inspiration for the decaying architecture and abandoned consumer goods filling the backgrounds of Martin’s larger works comes easily. “The environments I put my animals in are places I see around Brooklyn,” he says, calling his neighborhood “rugged and utilitarian.”

Massive animals in distress dominate the crumbling relics of humanity in Martin’s paintings—howling monkeys, rampaging boars, stoic buffalo and elephants. They are injured and resigned, yet somehow still full of strength and eternal patience. “It’s nature reclaiming what was stolen from it,” Martin says. Despite the serious, cautionary message conveyed by his work, he explains, “There is an element of hope. It’s not all about death and destruction. I’m trying to stay clear of that. I’m also playing with the idea of rebirth.”

Hope can also be found within the almost serene luminosity of each painting and the loving technical skill used to execute them in oils. Martin draws insight from Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painters, in particular the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. “I look at historical sources that inspire and intimidate me,” he says. “These are masters who really honed their craft.” Some of Martin’s smaller paintings depict animals within still-life scenes of dewdrop-covered flowers, a typical subject matter of the master painters. “They spent so long really figuring out how to portray the most perfect, perfect bouquet of flowers,” Martin says with tremendous respect and awe. “The intimidating part is, how do I do something like this through a contemporary filter while keeping in mind the work that has come before?”

Martin also admires the Dutch and Flemish masters’ use of allegorical symbolism. “Some of them explored all four seasons by bringing in different insects to represent the seasons,” he says. “When you read into it you realize they bring entirely different meaning to the piece.” Tiny butterflies frequently hover within Martin’s own paintings, perhaps representing the fragility of life and a small fluttering of hope.

Other symbols in Martin’s work are playfully dark and suggest the threat and aftermath of war. In As We Waited, a fox runs in front of a building covered with the subtle shadows of falling bombs. Classic Forties and Fifties pin-up girls straddle and caress bombs on decaying walls within several paintings. “Pin-ups serve as sinister propaganda posters,” Martin says.

Despite the patience required to build up thin layers of oils that can take anywhere from two to four days to dry, Martin says, “As long as I have something new to work on it stays inspirational.” He explains, “I tend to work from a well thought out sketch before I start painting. Most of the mistakes I make are done in the sketch process. If I get stuck I work on something else and come back to it.” With a solo show on the horizon at Copro Nason in February 2010, Martin has intensified his workload. “I’ve gotten into the habit of getting three or four paintings going at once,” he says. “My next big show will deal exclusively with a world taken over by storms… I also have a show in October 2010 in Seattle [at Roq La Rue] that will envision the world taken over by a new ice age.”

When asked to share the best piece of advice anyone has given him about his career, Martin doesn’t hesitate to say, “One I really stand by is that your best friends in this industry are other artists.” He urges newcomers to support each other as artists. “Most of the breaks I’ve been getting have been through the recommendations of other artists. Introducing yourself and your work to other people who are also creatives is the best way to get into the business side.” It’s not surprising that community is so important to an artist who spends a lot of time envisioning a future where we have destroyed ourselves—a future that, together, we may still have the power to change.

www.martinwittfooth.com

Words: Shay Wilson