Martin Maloney (1938-2003)
In 1962 Martin Maloney settled as an artist in New York. He shared a studio with Lawrence Weiner and maintained relations with artists such as Carl Andre , Joseph Kosuth and Dan Graham.
In 1966, Maloney took part in the infamous ’25’ group exhibition , organized by the young art dealer Seth Siegelaub ,who was to become the great promoter of conceptual art a few years later.
Maloney exhibited at Siegelaub several times and also had shows in several major European galleries. During this period, Maloney was looking for alternatives to the traditional gallery exhibition. In many cases, his solo exhibitions would be accompanied with, or even take the form of an artist’s book. Examples are ‘Interguments’ (1969), ‘Fractionals’ (1970) ‘Reject Objects’ (1971) and ‘Five days and five nights’ (1970). The latter book was published in an edition of 500 copies in the framework of Maloney’s one man show at the MTL gallery in Brussels. Maloney locked himself for five days and five nights in the gallery to work on the resulting booklet of poetic statements. The conventional presentation of objects in a gallery made room for the direct communication of ideas in print .
For his next exhibition at London’s Lisson Gallery (1971), Maloney takes things even a step further. After distributing a poster designed by the artist, Maloney takes residence in the gallery and throughout the whole duration of the event goes into direct confrontation with his audience. The resulting insights and frustrations he wrote in white chalk on the black painted walls of the basement . After a short stay in London, Maloney moved to Amsterdam in 1973 , and leaves behind the hardcore minimalist concept to include wood sculptures and painted text works . Four years later he returned to New York, to gradually retreat in the privacy of his studio , serving as a laboratory for numerous installations and presentations.
At the end of the ninetees untill his death in 2003 Martin lived and worked in the city of Antwerp.