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Daniel Martin
Fragments of the Familiar: Disrupting the Portrait to Reveal What Lies Beneath​
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In Martin’s work, the human face becomes a layered terrain; where memory, material, and perception collide.
Through a process of layering, deconstructing, and recomposing, Daniel Martin explores the fragile boundaries of identity and perception. Working primarily with portraiture, he distorts familiar features into sculptural forms that hover between recognition and alienation. His paintings do not offer fixed likenesses but instead ask the viewer to consider how faces — and by extension, selves — are built, broken, and remembered. In this space of tension and ambiguity, Martin invites us to confront the instability of the image and the fluid nature of human presence.
 Courtesy of the artist |  Courtesy of the artist |  Courtesy of the artist |  Courtesy of the artist |
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 Courtesy of the artist |  Courtesy of the artist |
BIO
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Daniel Martin (b. 1982, The Netherlands) is a visual artist whose work explores the fragmented nature of identity and perception. Combining traditional painting with digital techniques and sculptural interventions, Martin deconstructs and reconstructs the human face into layered, textural compositions that hover between familiarity and distortion. His interest lies in the shifting boundaries of selfhood and the impermanence of form. Martin has exhibited internationally, with solo and group shows in Europe, Asia, and North America, and his work is held in numerous private collections.
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PUBLICATIONS ​
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Daniel Martin’s work has been widely featured in international art publications and media outlets. His fragmented portraits and exploration of identity have appeared in Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, and Beautiful Bizarre, where critics highlight his ability to blur the line between realism and abstraction. His practice has also been spotlighted by platforms such as Colossal, IGNANT, and Fubiz, reflecting a growing global interest in his unique visual language. Through these features, Martin’s work continues to spark conversation around perception, the self, and the evolving nature of portraiture.
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RECONSTRUCTING PERCEPTION
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Daniel Martin’s portraits are built through disruption—cut, layered, reassembled—yet they never lose their humanity. Rather than presenting fixed identities, his works question the nature of seeing itself. Faces dissolve into texture, structure bends into abstraction, and surface becomes a site of inquiry. Through this visual dissonance, Martin invites the viewer into a space where familiarity is fractured and re-formed. His practice isn’t about likeness, but about the fragmented and fluid nature of being—how we’re constantly shaped by memory, time, and perspective. Each painting becomes a mirror, reflecting not a person, but a process.
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