A Bigger Bradford by Martin Hearne at Kirkgate

Bradford’s Trapezium Gallery is pleased to present A Bigger Bradford by Martin Hearne, an exhibition of paintings that explores his experience of living in the city of Bradford.

Martin explains, “In these recent paintings, I have made an attempt to reflect my everyday experience of the city of Bradford and to make a record of a familiar place. They are an attempt to paint the city in a way that recreates some new aspect of that familiar experience.”

Martin’s paintings are urban landscapes, collaged together from observation, memory, photographs or drawings, collected and made by traveling along the same streets every day; regularly seeing the same characters going to work at the same time, parents taking the kids to school each weekday and the same buildings in changing light and weather. But they are in fact imaginary spaces, inspired by the lighting effects seen on the side of a building or the striking colour effects of modern shop fronts. People are portrayed against the backdrop of an urban, industrial landscape where the old Victorian city merges with the new world of multicultural Bradford.

Ken Woods of Trapezium says, “The aim of our gallery is not only to showcase talented local artists, but also to celebrate the city of Bradford. Martin’s paintings do both. They don’t hide the gritty aspects of certain areas of the city, but they do add the warmth of familiarity and highlight rare gems of beauty or character, such as textile shop windows or architectural style.”

“The paintings explore the relationship between the figure and the landscape, or the figure in the landscape,” is how Martin describes his painting process; “I see the act of painting as a performance of sorts where the chance and randomness of the fluid paint is channelled into a mark resembling or making a connection with the visual experience.”