ECC – Emanuele Catellani Contemporary presents a solo exhibition of the American artist Martha Tuttle in the project rooms in Chieri, Italy. The exhibition is open by appointment only.
Martha Tuttle’s practice embeds natural elements in the forms of her paintings. The compositions emphasize materiality, employing physical processes such as dyeing, weaving, and sewing that permeate each of the works that are colored with naturally derived substances. Passages of translucent stretched silk are dyed with plant matter and iron while others are painted with stone pigments, creating pools of subtle elemental colors.
Visually, the marks on the silk begin to suggest the cracking of a geological topography. Appearing to emerge and recede behind these sections, visible stretchers create compositional balance rather than solely serving as support. Together with the found minerals, the compositions resonate with the larger geological questionings concerning how relationships can be established with the geologic.
© Text and Photo Courtesy of ECC – Emanuele Catellani Contemporary
