Martin McMurray at Susanne Vielmetter - Art Forum Berlin

The first time I walked by Susanne Vielmetter’s booth at Art Forum Berlin, they were installing a larger work that overshadowed most of the booth. I decided to swing back at the end of the show just to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. After all, this was one of the rare booths from America and I wanted to see what they had to offer. Good thing I did or I would have missed a series of works by San Francisco based artist Martin McMurray.

Set against a monotone background, each canvas depicts a political figure seated in a car along with a small flag indicating the origin of the passenger. There is a cartoon like quality to the works due to the proportions of car and driver, but at no time are the works silly. The canvases are accessible, aesthetically pleasing, and just plain fun! The gallery displayed the paintings (each at 30” x 40”) in a grouping of 16. They are magnificent to look at all together, but they are definitely strong enough to stand by themselves. The only hard part now is deciding which one to buy. Check out Martin McMurray at www.martinmcmurray.com or at his gallery www.vielmetter.com.