Mark Grotjahn: 50 Kitchens

Over the course of three decades, Mark Grotjahn (b. 1968) has produced a diverse oeuvre which pushes the boundaries of visual language. Encompassing painting, drawing and sculpture, his multimedia practice foregrounds the tensions and intersections between the abstract and figurative divide. The artist works in distinctive series with a meticulous, almost obsessive drive. Treading the line between geometry and gesture, Grotjahn has developed a unique pictorial lexicon that is at once idiosyncratic and continually evolving. Since his initial ‘Sign Exchange’ project (1993–1998), the artist has gone on to create his renowned series of ‘Butterfly’ paintings (2001–); ‘50 Kitchens’ (2013–2018); ‘Face’ (2003–); his sculptural body of ‘Masks’ (2000–); and more recently the ‘Capri’ (2016–) and 'Backcountry' (2021–) paintings, among others. Comprising angular motifs, a capricious sense of symmetry, reductive sculptural forms, a vibrant palette, and rich impasto paint in his dynamic opus of work, Grotjahn seeks to challenge and upturn the hermetic structures of artistic production.

‘At the centre of Grotjahn’s practice is a belief in formalism – the idea that paintings can be self-contained, and derive from continual experimentation in medium and form. He has spoken widely on his love for the non-objective – distinct from abstract art, which literally means to “take out”, or detract. Instead, Grotjahn relies on painting to build systems and structures which have no external reference point. This is made abundantly clear by his speaking on the subject: […] Grotjahn invokes and withdraws comparisons to real life objects, telling the viewers “I called some ‘butterflies’ but I don’t think they are butterflies; I call my sculptures ‘masks’ but they are not masks.”’

L. Earthy, ‘Mark Grotjahn’s Waking Formalism’, Emergent Magazine, September 2022