The Dutch painter and collagist Marty Poorter describes her process-driven practice as “a game where I surrender to a kind of inner music.” Like a piece of music, her compositions are symphonic, with acrylic, ink, paper and etchings combining to depict human and animal figures in an ambiguous dance — sometimes joyous, elsewhere melancholic. Her characters, pictured either in portraits or in full-body views, are drawn in a broad range of post-impressionist and expressionist styles, the thin, tortured lines of some cases contrasting sharply with touches of cubist and art deco imagery in others.
Poorter combines many modes through the act of collage, placing thin ink line figures next to areas of abstract, monochromatic paint and intricate flourishes of bright colors. The rough textures and overlapping layers created through the accumulation of acrylics and the addition of collage elements makes for a rich and intriguing variety of surfaces. Neither overly busy nor dauntingly multifarious, Poorter’s painted and drawn collages feature subtle details emerging gradually from arresting images.