Light'n'Lines
Pink Paintings
Borderlines
Layers
Sound and Vision
Sound and Vision - Compositions
Biography
The contemporary paintings of German artist Doris Marten explore the perception of colours and their mutual influence, immersing the viewer in an abstract geometric world.
Lines as a way to study colour perception
Doris Marten lives and works in Berlin. She grew up in southern Germany before moving to the capital in the 90s: a buzzing social and artistic period after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Berlin, she continued to study fine arts, having already been a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg.
Since she started her career as an artist, she has focused on the perception of colour: something the contemporary art painter studies in the most neutral way possible by only using simple geometric motifs (lines and bands). Lines showcase individual colours and highlight the effect of one colour on the others.
Thanks to this research, she has acquired vast knowledge of colours and their nuances, as well as how they influence what we see. For example, the artist uses blue or yellow to give her abstract works a sense of being open and light, or red to make the visual space of a painting feel heavier to viewers.
Optical illusions, light effects and an impression of movement created by colour
When an artist focuses on colour perception in their research, illusion can become key. Thanks to her experience, Doris Marten is able to create the illusion of a colour that is not actually present in a work. For example, a sense of blue can be conjured simply by juxtaposing violet and light green.
Conversely, when viewers contemplate the Pink Paintings series, the first thing they notice is a sense of pink. However, on looking closer, they will discover various different colours including blues, reds, violets and burgundies. This nuanced and extended palette helps deepen our appreciation of the painting and contributes to our understanding of the artist’s work.
The strong contrasts that characterise the artist’s recent series (Pink Paintings and Light’n’Lines) are simply created through the expert use of colours. Constrained and “channelled” into coloured lines, the light seems to move horizontally or vertically across the abstract painting to create a powerful impression of movement throughout the work’s entire length.
Time as a production material for a work
The artist chooses her materials (mainly oil paints and ink brush pens) and mediums (aluminium panels or cotton canvas) to suit the aesthetic and visual effect she wants a work to have. No matter what is chosen, the creative process is rather long and can last several weeks.
For Doris Marten, time is itself a material required to develop a work. She sees a parallel between real life and her creative process. Every line she draws represents the present: a temporal dimension within which the artist’s choice is influenced by memories (what she has already painted) and by future expectations (her idea for the work), just as is the case in real life.
Although Doris Marten only uses lines and meticulous, patient and consistent strokes in her work, she also introduces instinctive choices during the creative process to modify her original ideas about a painting – sometimes substantially.
Doris Marten’s works surprise the viewers, challenging their visual perception. Although abstract, her paintings can stimulate the imagination by creating links with figurative images and shapes. These artworks are parts of prestigious collections in Germany, notably the Bundestag’s collection.
Portrait photo of Doris Marten: © Heike Steinweg
CV
Education
- 1997 – University of the Arts, Berlin (Germany)
- 1992-98 – Painting, Graphics and Object Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg (Germany)
- 1990-92 – Animator, Linda-Film GmbH, Munich (Germany)
Exhibitions
- PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- Collection West-Lotto, Münster, (Germany)
- Collection of the German Bundestag
- Artothek der Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, Berlin (Art Library of the Central and State Library, Berlin)
- Art Library, Nuremberg
- Messezentrum Frankenhalle, Nuremberg (Exhibition Hall Frankenhalle)
- SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2022 – Every Me and Every You, Kristine Hamann Gallery, Wismar (Germany)
- 2022 – “Formations in the rhythm of time”, World Culturel Heritage Rammelsberg Museum, Goslar (Germany)
- 2022 – “Formations and Time Layers”, Stoetzel-Tiedt Gallery, Goslar (Germany)
- 2021 – Vinyl Visions, no cube, Münster, (Germany)
- 2020 – Zwischen den Farben (Between the Colours): solo exhibition at Gallery Ostendorff, Münster (Germany)
- 2020 – Every Choice a Change: Solo exhibition at WestLotto, Münster (Germany)
- 2017 – Linear Spheres, solo show, Art Gallery Messmer, Riegel am Kaiserstuhl (Germany)
- 2017 – LUMEN, solo show, St. Gumbertus and project space LOFT, Ansbach (Germany)
- 2015 – DOUBLE MINDED, solo show, Gallery Schmalfuß Contemporary, Berlin (Germany)
- 2014 – THE PINK PAINTINGS, solo show, Gallery Münsterland, Emsdetten (Germany)
- 2013 – SOUND AND VISION, solo show, Cuba Cultur, Münster (Germany)
- 2013 – BORDERLINES, solo show, Gallery Funke, Berlin (Germany)
- 2011 – grids’n’stacks, solo show, Gallery Funke, Berlin (Germany)
- 2010 – PINK PAINTINGS, solo show, Vattenfall-Lounge, Berlin (Germany)
- 2010 – PINK PAINTINGS (Landscapes and Skylines), solo show, Gallery of Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Berlin (Germany)
- 2008 – Sequences, solo show, Zumikon, Nuremberg (Germany)
- 2007 – ZOOM, solo show, Gallery Peter Pfertner, Hamburg (Germany)
- 2006 – Pathos in Focus I, solo show, Gallery Jonas Reuber, Berlin Pathos in Focus II, sox36, Berlin (Germany)
- 2006 – Pathos in Focus II, sox36, Berlin (Germany)
- 2001 – The next Picture, solo show, Gallery Kohlenhof, Nuremberg (Germany)
- GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2024 – “Concrete Kunst”, group show, Pulchri Studio, The Hague (Netherlands)
- 2024 – “Orange is the colour of my dreams”, Smudajekscheck Gallery, München, Germany
- 2023 – “I will not be sad in this world”, collective show, Sehasaal, Vienna (Austria)
- 2023 – “MiNiMAL”, group show, L.A.R.C. / Place of contemporary art and research, Grasse (France)
- 2023 – “SIGNAL NOISE / SCULPED COLOUR“, group show, Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen (Germany)
- 2023 – “H dden message”, group show, GLUE, Berlin (Germany)
- 2022 – Group show at Association for Contemporary Art Ruhrgebiet e.V, Oberhausen (Germany)
- 2021 – ORBIT, group show, Poimena Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
- 2021 – Dicursive Geometry, Sounds and Words, xs gallery, Kielce, (Poland)
- 2020 – AIR BERLIN, Villa Heike, Berlin (Germany)
- 2020 – MADE IN BERLIN, group exhibition, Ostendorff gallery, Münster (Germany)
- 2020 – Réalités Nouvelles, group exhibition, Parc Floral de Paris (France)
- 2020 – Function.Anomy.III, group show, Axel Obiger Gallery, Berlin (Germany)
- 2019 – FREIHEIT_ID!, group show, ID-Studios, Berlin (Germany)
- 2019 – „Funktion.Anomy“, group show, City Palace, Paduli (Italy)
- 2019 – „Funktion.Anomy“, group show, Gallery of the Town Hall Reinickendorf, Berlin (Germany)
- 2019 – FAKE COVERS FOR FAKE MUSIC, group show, Hilbertraum, Berlin (Germany)
- 2018 – Anonymous Drawings, group show, Gallery im Körnerpark, Berlin (Germany)
- 2018 – IN COMMON, group show, ID-Studios, Berlin (Germany)
- 2016 – Anniversary exhibition of Gallery Schmalfuß Contemporary, group show, Marburg (Germany)
- 2016 – Everything but flat!, group show, Gallery Ostendorff, Münster (Germany)
- 2016 – Fourth Internationaler André Evard Preis, group show, Art Gallery Messmer, Riegel am Kaiserstuhl (Germany)
- 2016 – Work in Progress, group show, Art Museum Bayreuth, Bayreuth (Germany)
- 2015 – CHECKERED HISTORY, The Grid in Art & Life, group show, Outposts Artists Gallery, New York (USA)
- 2014 – UTA, group show, Art Gallery Weißensee, Berlin (Germany)
- 2013 – Time is Now!, group show, Gallery Funke, Berlin (Germany)
- 2010 – Forceful predicitons, group show, Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin (Germany)
- 2010 – May it be a little less?, group show, Gallery Peter Pfertner, Hamburg (Germany)
- 2009 – The infinite bow, group show, Zumikon, Nuremberg (Germany)
- 2008 – End of Service, group show, Gallery Oechsner, Nuremberg (Germany)
- 2007 – Take me to the edge of heaven, group show, Art Space Kreuzberg, Berlin (Germany)
- 2007 – Lines, solo show, terra architectura, Berlin (Germany)
- 2004 – mad(e) in Berlin, group show, Förderkoje Ralf Schmitt, Berlin (Germany)
- 2003 – Abstraction Now, group show, Künstlerhaus, Wien (Austria)
- 2001 – Square 36, group show, Project Space Mitte, Berlin (Germany)
- 2001 – Exhibition of award-winning Debutants, group show, Art Gallery Akademie, Nuremberg (Germany)
- 1999 – WARENZEICHEN, group show, Nürbanum, Nuremberg (Germany)
Awards & Residencies
- 2020 – Honorable Mention, ITSLIQUID International Contest, 7th Ed.
- 2019 – First Prize: Kunst am Bau Competition, Berlin, Primary School Under the Rainbow
- 2019 – Artist Residency, Paduli (Italy)
- 2008 – Scholarship of Käthe-Dorsch-and-Agnes-Straub-Foundation (Germany)
- 2007 – Goldrausch artist project, art IT (Germany)
- 2002 – Scholarship of German Akademic Exchange Service (DAAD) (Germany)
- 2002 – First prize, art on building competition, Governement of Upper Frankonia (Germany)
- 2000 – Prize for Debutants of the Free State of Bavaria (Germany)
- 1996–98 – Grantee of scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (Germany)
Articles
‘Sound and Vision’ by Doris Marten: A visual symphony
In her latest series, entitled ‘Sound and Vision’, the German artist dropped traditional media for vinyl records instead, symbolically...