Nat Martin’s work in Over Days includes personal pieces that reflect Martin's daily life, intentionally blending art and everyday experience. Nat Martin enjoys working on the scale of toys and items on shelves, small objects yet laden with humor and meaning. Some works are visual, others conceptual, but most are playful.

Martin creates works that are both familiar and strange, balancing one foot in the everyday world and the other somewhere entirely different. His art often involves his children, who bring him odd items they find, suggesting he should incorporate them into his pieces. Materials, scraps, lost toys, and other fragments from daily life frequently become part of his creations. In a past show titled Untitled Afternoon, Martin added notes about each sculpture—an approach he has continued in Over Days.

Martin’s project Alternate Views consists of found eBay listing images, specifically secondary photos of items for sale. These images, which offer a more complete view for potential buyers, inform the artist’s exploration of value, context, and perception. Alternate Views is an ongoing project that directly connects with Martin’s sculptural work.

Artist and colleague Hilary Tolan observes:

“Plastic detritus, scraps of wood, toys, glue, plaster, and paint. Everyday materials meet art materials and musings that conjure relationships; be they material or personal. Through the mundane Martin reflects on his relationship to his children within his routine of day to day; this life as an artist that is steeped in daily demands. There is no pretension here and the curious and sometimes odd objects are of a handheld size. Martin shares a vulnerability with us and one would surely like to pick them up and investigate the textures, messiness and “stuff” that he presents to us while inviting us into a corner of his world.”

Artist Bio

Nat Martin has been exhibiting art for 20 years and his work has appeared in many shows throughout New England. He has been a member of the Kingston Gallery since 2017. Martin received his B.A. from Skidmore College as an art history major, and earned his M.A. in art history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Nat Martin has taught art History, darkroom and digital photography since 2000 and lives outside of Boston with his very creative wife and two kids.