By Daily Press staff
Bright flowers and stylized patterns fill the room at the Santa Monica Museum of Art as it presents Virgil Marti’s exhibit “Grow Room.”
Marti covered the walls of the museum’s famous Project Room with flower and web patters printed on reflective Mylar sheets, creating an almost overwhelming and hypnotic effects. The decoration reflects the historical tradition of a Rococo Hall of Mirrors. Meanwhile, the huge cast resin chandelier, which is part antler, part flower, provides a center piece for the room.
Although it’s Marti’s first exhibition on the West Coast, the Philadelphia-based artist is well known for many works ranging in subject from a beer can collection in his beer can library to a 34-foot velvet couch installed in the lobby of a commuter train station. Marti finds inspiration for the works in textiles, elements of interior design, furniture and even movies such as Stanley Kubrick’s “A Space Odyssey” and Nicholas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
Marti has covered many areas of art, working as a master printer at the Museum of Philadelphia and an instructor in advanced serigraphy at the Tyler School of Art. He also has been honored with several grants and awards, including a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for Sculpture.
Marti received a B.F.A. in painting from Washington University’s School of Fine Arts followed by degrees from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
The opening reception for the exhibit will take place Saturday, Sept. 15 at 5 p.m. It will be hosted by Casablanca Restaurant, Crystal Geyser Water Company, El Charro Tequila, Latino Weekly Review and Quantum Rhapsody Blush.
For more information about any exhibits call the Santa Monica Museum of Art at (310) 586-6488.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 29, 2003. Read the original PDF.