NKollectiv presents “Raw Materials,” an art exhibition by Julia Martin, Sept 20 – Oct 13, 2024, in the gallery at 960 Santa Fe Drive. Martin uses a patchwork approach to mixed media collage, exploring the latent feelings, processes, and beneath-the-surface conditions that shape our actions and ultimately direct our lives. The public is invited to an Opening Reception on Friday, Sept 20, 5:30–8:30 p.m., to an Artist Talk on Sunday, Sept 22, 2 p.m., and to view the show during the Sept 29th Sundays on Santa Fe Art Walk, 11-3 p.m., the Oct. 4th First Friday Art Walk, until at least 9 p.m. and during regular gallery hours as listed below.
Like a body, each piece in the show has its unique role. Individually depicting small moments and decision points, they work in concert to become a whole greater than its parts. Her folded and sewn “Pocket Notes” collect on a gridded ground of layered oil and cold wax, suggesting the complexity of our inner communications. The “Seeds” pieces use repetitive shapes—the unseen “seeds” of a lived life that exist at varying levels of breakthrough. The “Torsos” series echoes human forms constructed from weathered collage fragments and bundled artist-made scraps. The collection as a whole, stitched together with tangled threads and irregular edges, suggests the raw and beautiful makeup of human beings.
Martin is an abstract artist living and working in Denver, Colorado. She grew up in North Carolina, immersed in the traditional fiber arts skills of her great-grandmother (Mammaw) and grandmother (Sarabelle), who were remarkable quilters, seamstresses, and crocheters.
She combines abstract line work (often sewn) and small paper scraps with layers of oil and wax that are hand-stitched into larger assemblages. Her work, which relies on techniques such as quilting and sewing, challenges the hierarchy of fine art circles that historically dismissed these techniques as craft or women's work. Stitched lines often convey a predictable pattern, yet Martin believes something vital materializes when thread is allowed less structure. Intimacy, grittiness, perseverance, and repair are consistent themes as she scrapes down, covers up, and mends, using thread as a primary tool for her visual language. Initially trained in public health and as a certified nurse midwife, Julia allows the same intimate witnessing of joy and grief to guide her current work. Her path to professional art after her work in healthcare inspires her to suture her disparate experiences into her artwork, being, and life.
“I can often be found stitching my work in moments in between. I sew small scraps together, much like how brief bits of time join to make up a day.” Martin explains, “The resulting patchworks show how I collate visuals, thoughts, memories, and ideas—my grist for living a life. Paper’s pliable, fragile composition allows it to be sutured gently back together, like healing skin. With their various stages of tension, the seams in my work represent how we hold together when going through significant events individually and collectively. We are tethered to one another.”
NKollectiv (pronounced N Collective), located at 960 Santa Fe Drive in Denver, is a curated space for local Colorado artists to display and sell their work, grow their practice, and interact with collectors. Visitors are invited to view and purchase work during gallery hours or by appointment. Regular gallery hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays, Noon-5 p.m.; Fridays, Noon–8 p.m. (9 p.m. or later on event nights); Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m.–4 p.m. A selected portfolio of works is available for purchase online at nkollectiv.com along with more information about specific artists and events. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook @nkollectiv.