William Martin: Ocular

AI art:  after decades of work in the field of computer technology and with prior years working at the center of the New York Art World’s tribe of lithographers, William Martin has returned to art making by combining the two fields. This exhibition, Ocular, on view at UAP Gallery marks this return.

From the artist:

In this inaugural series of limited edition prints, the title is based on both meanings of ocular – a physical lens, and the act of looking.  I deliberately make the imagery ambiguous, allowing multiple reads.

Unlike the mercurial art form of lithography, these prints are not the result of physical processes affected by temperature, humidity, ink viscosity, or the physical nature of oil, stone, and water.

In these new prints, I began by creating images with my NIKON D7200 camera in a variety of environments, often out of doors. I employ a unique method I’ve developed to use in collaboration with artificial intelligence (AI) based on the resolution ‘noise’ from my photographs and other parameters. Finally, I culled from the possibilities and curated the images into this series. Each image is an edition of fifteen.

I am thrilled to be showing this new work at UAP Gallery for which the premise of the show is driven by ideas about new lenses and new ways of seeing, and notions such as the fact that until recently, these works of art could not have been made, let alone seen and appreciated, as they involve a happy and considered collaboration between AI and a human being.  For me, it is one of the futures of what art can be.”

About William Martin

William Martin grew up in Somers, Connecticut, a self-described artist-technologist. He is the director and main content creator for Art Curious-Contemporary, a platform which brings his interests in visual art, audio-arts, philosophy, and technology to the virtual art space.

The artist attended Brooklyn College, where he was inspired to study with Lee Bontecou. While painting was his focus, he also explored lithography and intaglio printmaking techniques. Philip Pearlstein, Lois Dodd, William T. Williams, and Allan D’Arcangelo were other artists who influenced him at Brooklyn College. However, It was D’Arcangelo who planted the seed to consider computer technology for new possibilities in his art making.

William Martin began his professional art career as a lithographer, privileged to work with among the most inventive artists of the time. As a lithographer in the early 1990s in New York, he was recognized by the Museum of Modern Art, for projects he worked on for the artist Robert Motherwell. A few years later, at age twenty-four, he became founder and Principal of Oberon Press LTD, NYC, in TriBeca, riding the great wave of interest in fine art limited edition printmaking.

As the New York Art World shifted, the artist turned his gaze to the young but burgeoning field of computers. Completely self-taught, over the decades William Martin designed and created global networks, providing communication around the world for various industries.

Ocular, at UAP Gallery represents William Martin’s inaugural return to printmaking, in which he brings together computer learning and fine art limited edition printing.

William Martin is a graduate of Colby College, AB, Philosophy + Art, and Brooklyn College, MFA, Drawing + Painting