Eleanor Harwood Gallery is thrilled to announce Martin Machado’s second solo show with the gallery: Fine Dine the Demons. The show will be on view through June 21st, 2025.
This exhibition consists of paintings made throughout the last year. In this group of works, Machado continues to develop several ongoing series relating to the natural world’s cycles and his experience working on the water as a commercial fisherman and merchant mariner. The ship’s wake plays the largest role in the show, carrying the viewer between the time and place of the other pieces; from one month’s full moon phase to a far-off shoreline.
The repetition in these works illustrates the artists’ fascination with the passing of time, the blurring of memory, as well as the blessing and curse that labor plays in our lives. As seen in his previous exhibition, most of the “Wake Series” works are painted in oil, both on linen and on nautical charts collected from international containerships Machado worked on as a merchant mariner. However, many of these recent paintings have a color palette that has shifted closer to his nocturnes. The highlights on the water are at times muted in a sepia that could be seen as reflecting a smoke-filled sky, while in others, a golden hue like the slivers of sunlight breaking through a storm.
The moodiness of these works is also reflected in the show’s title, Fine Dine the Demons borrowed from the lyrics of musician Adrienne Lenker’s song titled “Once A Bunch.” In the chorus, Lenker sings out, “half a margarita, have a little dance, let’s fine dine the demons and give peace a chance.” With equal parts gallows humor and heartfelt optimism, Machado searches for a ray of light in the hopelessness of our collective consciousness.
Both in the hanging of this exhibition and in his practice, Martin alternates between Plein Air paintings and studio-based works. During the Covid lockdown, he began painting outdoors at night to capture each month’s full moon and has kept up the practice. These moon paintings are typically created along the different waterfronts of San Francisco, pre-planned to try to catch the moonrise or set over the water. Weather always brings unique challenges, and of course, the darkness itself has a role in the works. “In some ways, it’s like painting with a blindfold on,” says Machado, “I like the surprises painting in the dark can bring, and I try to carry those discoveries into my studio-based work”.
In addition to the large group of oil paintings, there is a cluster of smaller works on paper. Once again, the ship’s wake is the focus of this group, this time translated with blue ink. In two works, the artist harkens back to an earlier series in his oeuvre, in which he references European colonial expedition etchings and replaces their boats with contemporary floating shipping containers. The works are delicate and ephemeral, serious and humorous.