Dani Marti
Born in Barcelona, Spain, 1963
Lives and works in Glasgow and Sydney
Education
2006 Master of Fine Arts, Glasgow School of Art
2000 Master of Arts, majoring in sculpture and installation,
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney
1991–1992 Fine Arts Course, Art Students League, New York
1990–1991 Diploma Fine Arts, Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney
1982–1988 MBA, Esade, Barcelona, Spain
1978–1979 Ramon Gomis, studies in tapestry technique, Barcelona, Spain
Solo Exhibitions
2006
Dark Bones, Citric Gallery, Brescia with catalogue by Domenico Quaranta, “Closer”
The Seven Pleasures of Snow White, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
2005
There is nothing at the end of the rainbow, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
Variations in a Serious Black Dress, Viewing Gallery, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Orifices 2000–2004 and Looking for Felix 2000, Newcastle Region Art Gallery,
NSW
2004–05
Variations in a Serious Black Dress, Canberra Contemporary Art Space,
Canberra, travelling to Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Sydney; Port Macquarie
Hastings Regional Gallery, NSW; Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Albury
Regional Art Gallery, NSW; La Trobe Regional Gallery, VIC; Monash University
Art Museum, VIC
2004
Looking for Rover, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Orifices 2000–04, The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
2003
Variations in a Serious Black Dress, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
Portrait of a young man returning a ladybird to the grass, Arc One Gallery,
Melbourne
2002
Blue angels, Galeria Alejandro Sales, Barcelona
Mother is crying, Briefcase Project and Block, Sydney
2001
You make me feel like love, peace and happiness, Gallery 4A, Sydney
I am forever blowing bubbles, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
missing spain, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney
Enhance Systems and Orifices, Span Galleries, Melbourne
Jamón, La Capella, Barcelona
2000
Thin Wall PB-I, Artspace, Sydney
Coco, Rubyayre Gallery, Sydney
Sorry I just dropped my guts, The Lounge, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney
Looking for felix, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
1999
WS-S#, Room 35, Gitte Weise Gallery, Sydney
1998
Warren de Maria Gallery, Sydney
Group Exhibitions
2006
Tomorrow Now, Foundation Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice
The Projection Room, coinciding with the Liverpool Biennale, Liverpool
A man’s world, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane
Goods to Declare, MFA International, Bezalel Art School, Tel Aviv
Celeste Art Prize, Goldsmiths University of London, The Old Truman Brewery, London
Marks and Comments, MFA degree show, Tramway, Glasgow and MoCa, Roskilde, Denmark
Strange Cargo, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales, touring to regional galleries in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland
Gridlines, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales
II Premio Internacional de Pintura de Castellón, Fundacion Astroc, Madrid
SCREAM Sounding Images, in collaboration with Diana Simpson, CalArts, Los Angeles
2005
POST, Residence Gallery, London and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
II Premio Internacional de Pintura de Castellón, Espai, Castellon
Glad-Wrap-Up, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
VAD Festival Internacional de Vídeo i Arts Digitals, Girona
Academy Now!, sound collaborations with Diana Simpson and Vivian Barty-Taylor,
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow
Good and Gruesome, CCA Student Lab Night, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
Arafura Craft Exchange, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
New Town Pasadena, in collaboration with Diana Simpson, Armory Center for the Arts,
Pasadena, CA
Nuit Blanche, Paris
2004
One Of: Festivus 04, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Pistils & Petals, Fundacio Espais Conteporanis, Girona
2003
Festivus, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Summer Show, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
25 years of Mardi Gras, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The Canberra Contemporary Art Space and The Art Store Art Award 2003, CCAS, Canberra
2002
Festivus, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Summer Show, Arc One at Span, Melbourne
Opening Show, Arc One at Span, Melbourne
Ruin, Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, Melbourne
Dressing and Dreaming, Sherman Galleries Hargrave, Sydney
Archive of Dud Slides, Briefcase, Sydney
2001
Artful Park 2001, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1x1, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
Blue angels, Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, Melbourne
Interiors, Object Gallery, Sydney
Plastic by nature, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Ante, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, Imperial Slacks Gallery, Sydney
2000
Twothousand&99, Exhibition and Performance Space, College of Fine Arts, University of
New South Wales, Sydney
Not quite right, Grey Matter Contemporary Art, Sydney
To exist (24), blue funghi, Grey Matter Contemporary Art, Sydney
1999
Three of a Kind, Gallery 19, Sydney
1998
Aula de Lletres, Barcelona, Spain
1997
What is love?, Toast II Gallery, Sydney
Fund-raising exhibition for the AIDS Trust of Australia
Love, No te nom Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Grants and Awards
2006
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy, The Stamp Collector video selection for “Tomorrow Now” Programme
1999
Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant
Work
Trained as a painter, Dani Marti studied
fine art in New York and Sydney, gaining a Master of Arts at the College
of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, in 2000. He is currently undertaking
a Master of Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland.
Marti’s artistic process is driven by the symbology of everyday industrial
materials, craft practices, conceptualism and formalism. He creates dynamic
woven constructions and sculptural installations that combine intellect and
a sensual, Baroque minimalism. These works have a strong inflection of portraiture
and resemble swatches of fabric that capture personalities, moods and intensities.
As such, they recall the intimacy of fabric in contact with the body and
represent not only states of feelings but also regimes of class and power
and the idiosyncrasies of personal psychosexualities.
Many of Marti s woven constructions are abstract representations of friends
or people whom he admires (for instance, Rover Thomas and St Francis of Assisi),
and include synthetic fibres, rubber, barbed wire, copper wire and cotton
thread. The patterns and textures of these works suggest individual identities
similar to the coded signatures of DNA. His installations are characteristically
immersive and large-scale, juxtaposing theoretical concerns and articulating
the private and social perceptions surrounding the body.
Since 1998, Marti has held 19 solo exhibitions and was a finalist in the
Helen Lempriere Sculpture Award (2001, 2002). Among his most recent woven
commissions are Phillip and Katherine (European Monarchs) (2004), for the
AMP Building, Circular Quay, Sydney, and Different Trains (2003) for Melbourne’s
Crown Casino. In 2002-03, Marti worked with Dale Jones Evans Architects to
conceptualise and design wind-wall installations for Docklands/Mirvac, Melbourne.