Artist Cameron Martin discusses his new exhibition “Baseline” at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins in New York with fellow painter Amy Sillman. The conversation explores Martin’s shift from earlier landscape-derived graphic paintings to a more abstract approach involving “almost signs”—forms where signifier and signified don’t fully align. Martin describes his work as engaging with paradox and contradiction, using surrogates for gesture and juxtaposing elements that don’t quite fit together, which can produce a sense of humor or drollness.
This dialogue matters because it offers rare insight into the conceptual thinking behind contemporary abstract painting, particularly how artists navigate semiotics, representation, and humor in politically fraught times. The exchange between two established painters illuminates the ongoing relevance of abstraction as a mode of critical inquiry, and underscores the role of artist-to-artist conversation in shaping art discourse beyond institutional or market narratives.