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Bio

Jackson Martin was born on a hippie commune in Summertown, TN in 1978. At age 10 Martin moved to Nashville, TN with his family where he graduated from Hume Fogg Academic High School in 1997. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States, using both traditional and non-traditional methods (hitch-hiking, train-hopping, walking) and was involved in a study abroad program in Mexico. Martin received his BFA from Middle Tennessee State University in 2004 and earned his MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. He exhibited regularly while living in Baltimore, MD at venues such as Area 405, the Maryland Art Place and Artscape's Baltimore Sculpture Project. He has also shown work at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, the Gallery at Flashpoint in Washington, DC and recently conducted a piece of interactive art for the 11th Annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival in Brooklyn, NY. Martin was an artist in residence at the Hall Farm Center in Townshend, VT in 2007 and will be at the Vermont Studio Center in May 2008. Martin lives in Johnson City, TN with his wife and daughter and in February 2008, he will have a solo show in Greenbelt, MD at the Greenbelt Community Center Art Gallery.

Artist's Statement

At the core of my work is a collaboration between the natural and the cultural. This meeting begins with my deliberate and calculated manipulation of industrial materials. I incorporate the permanence of steel, wood, glass and plastic, in order to represent my human propensity towards order and control. On the other side of this convergence exist the elements that are continually beyond my authority. I employ ephemeral materials, such as plants, dirt, water and light that represent the uncertain and unpredictable world around me. Ultimately, I construct frames, containers and enclosures in which the cultural elements attempt to hold and embrace the natural. Although I consistently juxtapose these two extremes, one does not take precedence over the other. As a result, this collaboration demonstrates the necessity, significance and noncompetitive nature of the two, side by side.