QUE PASA Magazine, Summer 1997

Alberto Martorana: Art in Search of the Essential

The origins of life on earth is an ambitious theme for an emerging artist to tackle. But for Alberto Martorana, a keen intellectual curiosity and years of studying philosophy, psychology and engineering urge him to undertake this dauting task”.

By Barbara Isherwood

Although just recently graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Martorana had already established a career as a specialist in Port, Harbour and Coastal Engineering, before taking his first art class in 1988. Living in California at the time, he was laid off during the first wave of the recession, and enrolled in a stone carving class as a productive way to spend his time.

“To me it was a great discovery to work with my hands, outside; to have this physical experience of work that is lost while doing paperwork at a desk,” says Martorana, who found that the creative activity unleashed an interest in art that had been simmering in the back of his mind for years.

As a child growing up in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Martorana had been surrounded by artists. His father was a painter, and his mother was also talented, although like many women of her generation, she put aside her career to devote herself to her family. Yong Alberto had polio, and required extra attention. The family’s circle of friends included artists such as the late Naum Knop, an internationally recognized sculptor. And beyond Martorana’s doorstep was the city of Bahía Blanca, which is blessed with a bountiful array of well-designed 20th century monuments.

Given this creatively nurturing background, why did Martorana pursue civil engineering as his first career? Back then, he says, he thought engineering would allow him to be self-employed, a long-standing goal for this independent minded individual. Ironically, Martorana was to discover that most engineers are in fact employees. When he relocated to Toronto in late 1988, he found work in his field immediately, but the constraints of his chosen field prompted him to take a drawing class at the Toronto School of Art.

Two years later he was laid off again, and courses at the Ontario College of Art and Design took up the slack. By 1992, says Martorana, Ï realized I had something to say as an artist.” Ready to make a serious commitment to his new vocation, he found a part-time engineering position that enable him to continue at OCAD, and in 1996 graduated from their Drawing and Painting Program.

Although he got a comparatively late start as an artist, Martorana has made up for lost time through his intense enthusiasm and an overflowing well-spring of ideas for projects. He is involved in Propeller, an artist-run gallery with an emphasis on painting, and his recent solo show there featured three bodies of figurative and abstract paintings that are expressions of his view of the cosmos. A series of Madonna images uses “creative misinterpretation”, a term borrows from mythologist Joseph Campbell, to explore the artist’s emotional connection to the mysterious origins of life. Martorana’s Madonnas are not icons of Christianity. Rather they stem from the universal myth of the Virgin as a symbol of regeneration. In Pregnant Madonna, blue rectangular shapes around the edges of the painting represent the minute particles from which living matter evolved. As the forms approach the expectant Virgin, they become fiery red, charged with life through a process that science has yet to fathom.

The language of geometric forms that begins to emerge in this painting reappears in a group of abstract painted reliefs that hint at Martorana’s engineering background. “I’m a builder,” says the artist, who in these works dissects nature into its essential elements.

Martorana’s fascination with methods of problem solving is also evidence of the organized mind of an engineer. “I’m intrigued by the processes by which we reach conclusions, ideas, artwork, knowledge.” Neuronal, painted relief in vivid shades of red and green, was given that title after the artist noticed its similarity to a map of the brain.

Such divergent sources of inspiration reveal the energetic mind behind Martorana’s artistic vision. Photographs, medieval icons, Celtic designs and electronic circuit boards are just some of the visual references he has drawn upon, while subject matter arise from his studies in psychology, philosophy, history, literature, and mythology.

The focal point of the show at Propeller, a self-portrait in oil called Anamorphosis, is Martorana’s interpretation of the Hindu myth of the net of Indra, which he explains as “a net of gems, where one gem reflects the others. It’s a kind of fatalistic explanation of life.” To represent this abstract concept, the artist depicted himself, paintbrush in hand, as the centre of a diamond-like prism, from which erupts shards of light that symbolize as reflecting gems the experiences that will shape his life, and the lives of those he encounters.

The jagged, radiating shapes that animate the portrait reflect Martorana’s desire to go beyond the realistic reproduction of the figure, towards the development of his own language of forms. A new series in progress takes this process even farther – in a large charcoal drawing the Cathedral of Strasbourg devolves into swirling organic forms that refer to the origins of stone within the earth.

While Martorana would gladly paint full-time, at this point his fledging career as an artist still requires the financial support his position as Engineer with the Toronto Harbour Commissioners provides. Other ideas on the burner include an homage to author Jorge Luis Borges, and a series of portraits of people with disabilities who are also achievers, a category Martorana would fit into himself. Whatever project he pursues, Martorana’s goal is to reach the psyche of the viewer through the universal themes he is exploring.