Marty Maehr’s use of geometric shapes gives rise to majestic forms that emerge amid the seas of colors that characterize his oil paintings. The hallmark of his work is his masterful use of color and light. Colors are bold, engaging, and impossibly rich. Set within his geometric forms, they create a remarkable stained glass effect, made all the more mesmerizing by the light in the image that seems as if it is shining through cut glass rather than created by paint on canvas.
Hailing from the heart of the American Midwest, Maehr was inspired in childhood by a year living in Tehran, Iran. The experience helped to develop within him a notion, expressed in his art, of the commonality of human experience. What results is an energy in his images that is invigorating, giving rise to an internal tension that, in the end, is transformed into something quite stunning. His artwork demonstrates the beauty that is inherent when fragmentation is transcended, giving way to something more universal.