Martha Zmpounou RI CBPP | Float, 2024
Monoprint
Media Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Image Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Unique Work
Framed only
Martha Zmpounou is primarily a figurative artist exploring themes of reverie, loss and memory. The human figure is seen as a layered, multifaceted often fragmented entity, a snapshot in time. Working from personal archives and found imagery, the works, technically, are developed through multiple layers of watercolour paint either directly on paper, unprimed fabric or through mono printing. The works sabotage the glorious, idealized self, in its complete and coherent version. Instead, they focus on the fragmentary and the cryptic, resulting in a fragile dynamic balance between abstraction and representation. Triggered by a trauma inflicted by her child’s near-death illness, her series of mono prints are an exploration of motherhood, echoing traditional pictorial depictions and relationships of co-dependency and intimacy. The series of works deals with the intricacies and dynamics involved in human relationships, exploring nuances of emotions, and the transition from visceral to cerebral. Drawing from Carl Jung’s concept of the archetypes and working from traditional images of mothers with children sourced from early and mid-20th century photos, advertising, found imagery or from personal photos, the objective is to evoke a sense of familiarity to the viewer. The intensity of the colour palette and the painterly gestures, at once defy and underpin the emotional ambience often depicted. There is an interplay between abstraction and figuration with an expressive use of the medium, which creates a tension contradictory to the quiet and tender theme of a mother with her children.
Monoprint
Media Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Image Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Unique Work
Framed only
Martha Zmpounou is primarily a figurative artist exploring themes of reverie, loss and memory. The human figure is seen as a layered, multifaceted often fragmented entity, a snapshot in time. Working from personal archives and found imagery, the works, technically, are developed through multiple layers of watercolour paint either directly on paper, unprimed fabric or through mono printing. The works sabotage the glorious, idealized self, in its complete and coherent version. Instead, they focus on the fragmentary and the cryptic, resulting in a fragile dynamic balance between abstraction and representation. Triggered by a trauma inflicted by her child’s near-death illness, her series of mono prints are an exploration of motherhood, echoing traditional pictorial depictions and relationships of co-dependency and intimacy. The series of works deals with the intricacies and dynamics involved in human relationships, exploring nuances of emotions, and the transition from visceral to cerebral. Drawing from Carl Jung’s concept of the archetypes and working from traditional images of mothers with children sourced from early and mid-20th century photos, advertising, found imagery or from personal photos, the objective is to evoke a sense of familiarity to the viewer. The intensity of the colour palette and the painterly gestures, at once defy and underpin the emotional ambience often depicted. There is an interplay between abstraction and figuration with an expressive use of the medium, which creates a tension contradictory to the quiet and tender theme of a mother with her children.
Monoprint
Media Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Image Dimensions: 50 x 67 cm
Unique Work
Framed only
Martha Zmpounou is primarily a figurative artist exploring themes of reverie, loss and memory. The human figure is seen as a layered, multifaceted often fragmented entity, a snapshot in time. Working from personal archives and found imagery, the works, technically, are developed through multiple layers of watercolour paint either directly on paper, unprimed fabric or through mono printing. The works sabotage the glorious, idealized self, in its complete and coherent version. Instead, they focus on the fragmentary and the cryptic, resulting in a fragile dynamic balance between abstraction and representation. Triggered by a trauma inflicted by her child’s near-death illness, her series of mono prints are an exploration of motherhood, echoing traditional pictorial depictions and relationships of co-dependency and intimacy. The series of works deals with the intricacies and dynamics involved in human relationships, exploring nuances of emotions, and the transition from visceral to cerebral. Drawing from Carl Jung’s concept of the archetypes and working from traditional images of mothers with children sourced from early and mid-20th century photos, advertising, found imagery or from personal photos, the objective is to evoke a sense of familiarity to the viewer. The intensity of the colour palette and the painterly gestures, at once defy and underpin the emotional ambience often depicted. There is an interplay between abstraction and figuration with an expressive use of the medium, which creates a tension contradictory to the quiet and tender theme of a mother with her children.
