"Dancer" - a solo show by Martine Johanna

Spoke Art is pleased to present Dancer, a solo exhibition by acclaimed Amsterdam based painter Martine Johanna. In her newest charged acrylic and resin paintings, Johanna explores the melancholic and complex expressions of her subjects within vivid colorscapes. Each of Johanna’s delicately rendered figures conveys a sense of full immersion within their own “internal psychic landscape.” 

Working with acrylic and resin on linen and wood panel, Johanna delves into the psychology of physical gesture, internal thought processes and our relationships to color. In this latest body of work, the artist explores dance and momentum as a way of communication and storytelling. Both pensive and joyous, Johanna displays a complex range of human emotion in each piece. Utilizing intimate facial expression, inflections of the body and the psychology of color, each piece is a beautifully balanced dance. 

Using her signature prismatic palette, each of the pieces is imbued with a mysterious narrative and sensation of knowing that each character in the work has a full and complex history that the viewer can never fully know. Each of Johanna’s figures are at once vulnerable and strong, combining the duality between “youthful naivety and anxiety-riddled adulthood”, hyper-saturated colors and the inherent beauty in pain and human emotion. 

Martine Johanna has had international success exhibiting extensively in the Netherlands and abroad. A background in fashion design has influenced her depiction and ease with the female figure. Inspiration for her work include a mixture of childhood and autobiographical memories and experiences, documentaries on human nature, independent films and history. 

Please join us for Dancer, opening Saturday, October 8th, with an opening night reception from 6pm-10pm. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, October 29th. For more information, additional images, or exclusive content, please email us at SF@spoke-art.com.