Jarrad Martyn (b. 1991) is an Australian artist based in Melbourne. His practice explores humanity’s relationship with the natural environment and how different historical events are framed.  

Through responding to a wide range of imagery, from family photo albums to found imagery from the internet Martyn is interested in the movement of the images through time. How the legacy of the photographs has changed, producing a range of new associations in the present. Through collapsing the distinctions between figuration and abstraction through painting, drawing and collage Martyn creates a state of flux, to visually represent something that is not fixed and constantly changing. This aesthetic language creates an ambiguous sense of place. The levels of distortion is characteristic of how photography and painting preserve memory in different ways. The painted image through its material sensuality, tactility, and atmospheric possibilities more closely aligns to the imprecision of the human brains mnemonic functions. Hindering the representation encourages the viewer shift between modes of thinking and looking, to deduce links between, and decipher their own conclusions as to what events are unfolding, and the symbolic meanings within.

Martyns’ work is in a number of public and private collections including the Gippsland Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, Curtin University, City of Perth, City of Joondalup, Shire of Mundaring, City of Yarra, Schmidt Ocean Institute and St John of God Hospital Art Collection. Martyn has been selected as a finalist in numerous national art awards, most significantly winning the John Stringer Art Prize (2018), the City of Joondalup Community Invitation Art Award Overall Acquisitive Award (2017), Fifty Squared Art Prize (2021), Mayors Award for the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art (2023) and the Peoples Choice Award for the John Leslie Art Prize (2024).  

Martyn’s practice also extends into the public sphere, being commissioned for a number of large-scale council and commercial murals. His work can be seen in the Shire of Collie (WA), Rochester (VIC), City of Fremantle (WA), City of Swan (WA), and the Newman Hotel in the Pilbara, among others.

Stockroom Kyneton, gallery one
24 May / 29 June 2025

JARRAD MARTYN
Echo

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Stockroom Kyneton, gallery two
04 February / 12 March 2023

JARRAD MARTYN
Polar Front

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