Martin Brief
Untitled, 2021
Ink on paper, 30” x 22.5”
This piece from the System Failure series was made by drawing a set of evenly spaced horizontal lines all having the same length and weight. Following this initial layer, I repeated this same set of lines nine times with each layer drawn at a different angle. From a short distance, the drawing appears mostly to be a gray square with some slight tonal variations. However, upon closer examination its layered construction and intricate detail become apparent.
This drawing is part of a series in which I experimented with different patterns, line thicknesses, and layering. My goal was to achieve a variety of density, value, and depth. I paid close attention to the gradual build-up of the layers and determined that each drawing was finished when any additional layering would obscure or completely eliminate the details built up to that point.
The drawings in this series are a meditation on our fragile and complex social systems. Each piece ends just before the point of failure, the precarious place where only one or two more layers would obliterate all detail from the drawing.
ARTIST BIO
Martin Brief is a St. Louis-based artist who makes artworks that are imbued with a sense of time and labor. His text-based pieces are a meditative practice that interrogate aspects of our complex cultural and political landscape. Martin’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally including exhibitions in St. Louis, New York, Paris, Zurich, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Chicago. In addition, his work is in several public collections, including the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has received fellowships from the Howard Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. Martin is a Professor in the Studio Art Program at Saint Louis University.
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