MARTIN CREED: THINKING / NOT THINKING

Martin Creed is excessive and entropic, impossible to confine to a formula.

Martin Creed (1968) is a unique figure on the international art scene. Nowadays, every artist busies themselves professionally within a well-defined niche, being predominantly dedicated to a medium, certain practices, procedures, and messages, to a brand-like image of the idea of art they embody. Hyper-specialization in contemporary art has often turned both artists and the public into true experts of coded visuals.

Martin Creed places himself, spectacularly, at the opposite pole of this general trend – he possesses a dizzying counter-expertise, practicing with equal enthusiasm and energy not only painting and video art, but also performance, sculpture, music, drawing, text, installations, actions, and conceptual art. And he does this not one at a time or every now and then, but all at once and all the time, without pause. He works in digital media, but also with plastic supermarket bags, paints on walls and on canvas, but also records music albums or sets up electro-mechanical, motorized installations, or devotes himself body and soul to street actions and performances.