10 July – 7 October 2024
1640 Electra Boulevard, Sidney, BC
Daily, 3:30am – 1:30am
The venue at YYJ is the café area before security.
Bio
David Martinello uses print, sculpture, painting, film, poetry, installation, and performance alongside traditional woodworking to explore the embedded gestures of wood. Working with the material’s natural attributes, Martinello contemplates wood’s legacy to develop a holistic account of its influence within the landscape.
Martinello’s practice is informed by a BFA from Queen’s University and years of building furniture with his company Alternative Woodworks. He has curatorial experience in several venues, including his creation of Points Art Gallery. Martinello’s sculptures, paintings and prints have been shown across Canada and he’s had Public Artworks commissioned by municipalities throughout BC and in Alberta.
Artist Statement
My approach to art comes from an experience we all relate to; admiring the breadth of a tree and picking up a stick to inspect its beauty. Enamoured by the materiality of wood, I’m curious about how its nature mediates the mechanics of meaning between art and craft. Evaluating wood is a way to navigate the world; its influence is a measure and representative of any landscape and is fundamental to understanding frameworks within the economy of life.
On display is a series of works from my ‘Imprint’ series. Drawn from woodblocks where the grain has been selected for its expressiveness, these qualities inspire a gestural conversation with the characteristics of the wood using ink or paint. Imprints are finished with my ‘chop’ or printmaker’s signature, which is also a burn stamp used to distinguish my sculptures.