Thoughts on Vladimir Martynov's unlocked secrets

  The formal symmetry found in Vladimir Martynov's imagery and his use of large-scale and golden illumination harkens to the splendor of a new architectural vision. 
  The depths and transparencies he allow us to look through via the anatomy of his structural systems, act as if science has unlocked secrets where metals flow like liquids, liquids freeze solid, shafts spin and whirl, circuits launch programs, and multiple entryways open and close revealing glimpses that if we turn away, they might each disappear and morph into a whole other configuration before our eyes. 
   Martynov employs new print technology and materials in ways that are sympathetic to his subject matter as contemporary works in a digital age that must be considered with mystery and inquiry. One feels almost that if you look long enough, some clue will be revealed from inside the image puzzle that might release whatever is hidden beneath the structure's own weights and balances.

  The difficulty of trying to create contemporary artworks that can operate in a unique visual realm, while we are bombarded with digital produced imagery in the public domain; is a challenge that is explored by Martynov in his ability to create his own worlds that feel familiar, yet remain purposefully foreign to us as interpreters. His works give us something visual to question, but do not necessarily give any answers to. In this equation, Martynov locates us somewhere between the known and the unknown.

Derek Michael Besant
Faculty of Fine Arts / Drawing ACAD
Alberta College of Art + Design

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