Raised and educated in Southern California, Martin Facey is a mid-career artist currently fascinated by botanical seed germination, a visual wonderland of microscopic processes such as heat, light, time, and humidity: all working in tandem to generate new life. The Seeds are new paintings and prints that mirror life formation itself. More in wonder than social criticism, Facey’s new work calls attention to the fragility of life on Earth and to the undeniable interconnectedness of all life. (See: New Work: Seed.)
Originally a film-making student at UCLA, Martin Facey was attracted to the art department by influential teachers such as Joyce Trieman, Bill Brice, Lee Mullican, Lynn Foulkes, and Richard Diebenkorn. Facey received two graduate degrees in painting from UCLA, and in the 1980’s a sequence of one-person exhibits at Santa Monica’s Tortue Gallery established his work as a critical and commercial success.
Both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts have awarded Facey’s work with Single Artist Fellowships in Painting.
Martin Facey’s paintings and drawings have been exhibited in many one-person and group exhibitions. His principle gallery affiliations have been with Jean Albano Contemporary Arts (Chicago), Tortue Gallery (Santa Monica), Ivory-Kimpton Gallery (San Francisco), Sena Galleries East and West (Santa Fe), Linda Durham Gallery (Santa Fe), and Jan Baum Gallery (Los Angeles).
