BILLY MARTIN: Billy Martin

NEW EXHIBIT OF PAINTINGS BY FAMED MUSICIAN/ ARTIST BILLY MARTIN OPENS APRIL 14TH AT THE MORRISON GALLERY IN KENT, CT

KENT, CT - (March _ 2012) - An exhibit of new paintings by Billy Martin, best known as 'illy B" and as the drummer in The Lounge Lizards and Medeski, Martin & Wood

bands, will run from April 14th through May 13th at Morrison Gallery in Kent, CT. The artist will attend the opening reception on Saturday, April 14th from 5-7 pm.

It is the second time Martin's paintings have been exhibited at Morrison Gallery and his first solo show at the 7,000 square foot space that has become a cultural center in Litchfield County.

Martin has had an interest in visual art since childhood spanning many mediums and forms of expression. He was influenced particularly by African, Oceanic and Brazilian cultures and, like his music, most of his drawings stem from chance and an improvisational style. Through this technique he has created iconic images, multimedia collages and his own style of bird portraits.

Above all else, Billy Martin believes in the power of unguarded expression. "Whether it's music or films or my drawings, I take the same approach, I improvise. I do have conceptual ideas I try to realize, but I think the best stuff comes out of improvisation. It comes from the same place, the same creative part of myself in the moment."

This is the core of Martin's art, complex conceptual ideas that are realized in moments of discovery. In his most recent body of work three distinct subjects present themselves as if in a dream-like collage. The Vessel, the Shaman and the Bird. Each is suspended in

space like an incomplete phrase, each rendered with an urgency that at first glance appears awkward, but soon reveals itself to be a cunning, highly developed approach

toward Martin's expressive intent; which is to question the nature of creative identity itself.

Is the artist merely a vessel in which sensory perception is collected, filtered and

poured? Or, is the artist, the trickster, the shaman, depicted with his arms outstretched, the levitating sphere of his improvisation conjured out of thin air? Or could it be that the artist is like the cautionary tale of these clumsy, flightless birds, each waiting for the flight of inspiration that predictability will not allow? Martin's work seems to suggest that all these facets of creative identity are simultaneously operable. It is Martin's own creative identity that is emerging here as a collage. As an artist, musician and filmmaker each is constantly informing and defining the other. This latest collection of Martin's work is a result of this unique interdisciplinary collaboration.

With so many outlets existing for his creative energies, Martin is always in the midst of

multiple projects. Even now, as he is helping to formulate Medeski Martin & Wood's upcoming 20th anniversary celebrations, he is working to bring to light recently-