In this episode, I visit Martin Basher at his studio in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

This episode is part of a series I’m delivering this season for the McCahon House Parehuia Residency, celebrating their 20th Anniversary, where I’m volunteering the services of The Good Oil to highlight the wonderful and important work they do, and some of their very impressive alumni, which includes Martin.

Martin has a BFA and MFA, both from Columbia University in New York.

His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki , The Agnes Gund Collection New York, the Majuda Collection also in New York, at the Pah Homestead Collection in Auckland. He has also been the recipient of several art prizes and residencies including the La Brea Residency in Los Angeles, the Susan Goodman Residency in Berlin, and, of course, the McCahon House Parehuia Residency in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Martin is represented by Starkwhite Gallery in Auckland.

There are images of the works that we talk about on The Good Oil Martin Basher Instagram Post for your reference.

You’ll hear Martin the unlikely role that itinerant agricultural work took in developing his practice, his relationship to the act of painting itself, which has seen him try to hide his hand in different ways, while also admitting he needs the very act of painting in his life, the two literary figures that have helped shape the subject matter, the multifaceted role that cardboard plays and represents in the work, his ongoing environmental concerns, which are still driving a driving force for him.