Synapses is the first solo showing of emerging artist Graham Martini. It includes an array of small-scale to mid-sized delicately rendered paintings and drawings created during his time at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Each piece is surreal in nature and evokes feelings of mystery, wonder and a sense of ineffability.

Graham Martini was born in 1999 in Charleston, South Carolina. He is set to receive his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2022. Martini has developed a portfolio comprised of paintings and drawings spanning various concepts and media. He is currently residing in Charleston.

I approach my work by considering that I want my paintings to reflect the unknown. I feel my role as an artist is to illuminate human curiosities in areas that certain ideologies or practices cannot. By using scientific ideas to discuss spirituality, the works bridge a gap between faith and understanding. This is important not for the purpose of finding answers but for realizing how little is known by people. These works are centered around the connectivity between disparate concepts. These conflicts combine religion and cynicism, technology and perception, and are distinguished through acts of representation or abstraction. Materiality and illusion are important aspects of how I interpret the subjects. The work is often based in realism with the intent of establishing familiarity, then subverting the connection.

–Graham Martini