SILVERLENS is proud to present spiritual thug lyf, a solo exhibition by Gene Paul Martin for one of its two opening presentations for 2021. This is the artist’s fourth individual presentation with the gallery, his previous ones being Homemade Drill in 2014, What’s So Wrong, If You’re Wrong in 2016, and Constructed by Chance in 2018. With Martin’s new set of paintings and sculptures, he confronts the confines of traditional artistic genres and offers a stimulating contribution to contemporary Philippine art.
Silverlens Galleries is proud to present a solo exhibition by Gene Paul Martin entitled spiritual thug lyf, a mesmerizing painting tour de force collapsing boundaries of abstraction, figuration, and landscape genres into a phantasmic panorama of shifting contexts and mutable identities, producing a picture of contemporary consciousness sampling digital culture and media, that explore code switching into symbolic narratives, art and music, and hasten the birth of spiritual visions alongside ecstatic experiences, while pitching the artist at the center of experiments in alchemical transformation and self-realization who uses only his imagination as the sole essential force in creating the universe. The painting’s goal here is to introduce the extraordinary in this ephemeral moment within the confines of two dimensional space that also sets the tone for the artist’s fabrication of the illusion of reality and the experience of magic. Indeed, Martin’s approach to painting is akin to sorcery with his ability to transform his medium at will, to dilute and coagulate his pigments phenomenally, to conjure fantastic shapes into anthropomorphic beings, and to compose his creations into manners of impossibility. His practice is also inspired by the electronic music that he creates which feeds on glitch harmonies, dissonant gestalts, and blissful drones, all harnessed by intuition from the chaos and noise of random esoterica. Thus the visual language that he produces is a kind of poetic revolution which resists the systems that bind and control, in other words, a thug’s life at the edge of aesthetic reason. In spiritual thug lyf, Martin presents his unique rendition of Pop figurative abstraction with a touch of techno animism, providing his viewers a wisdom of insecurity through a transcendental vision of a world forever in flux yet wondrously sublime.
Words by Arvin Flores.
spiritual thug lyf will be on view onsite alongside Considered Gestures, a group show curated by Yael Buencamino until 6 February 2021. These exhibitions will be ready for online viewing on 8 January 2021 and open for physical viewing the following day. While our physical space is open, gallery visits are strictly by appointment only. Schedule your visit through https://bit.ly/VisitSilverlens. For more information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or reach us at +63 917 587 4011. Gene Paul Martin (b. 1989, Manila) is a graduate of the Far Eastern University, Manila (BFA Painting, 2013). He was immediately offered a solo show at Silverlens. Since then he has had ten solo exhibitions, and several group exhibitions including one at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Aside from Manila, he has shown in Malaysia and Taiwan. One of the more dynamic artists of his generation, Martin’s work has caught the attention of important collectors and art audiences. Aside from his practice as an artist, Martin also curates and organizes exhibitions through his platform Sampaguita Projects run out of his studio in Project 8.

mpefm PHILIPPINES art press release