Biography
MADJIN / SOME NOTIONS OF HIS CAREER
Karine Martineau - Madjin - is a Franco-Canadian painter and illustrator from Montpellier, France.
Her passion for drawing and painting developed from a very young age, and she has participated in numerous workshops and artist residencies, including a month-long artistic exchange at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China in 2007.
A graduate of the école Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Nîmes, in France, in 2008 and from the École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), in 2010, she received the Charest-Wallot Printemps scholarship for her work Château D'ô, presented at the group exhibit Passage à Découverte, at the Galerie de l'UQAM, in 2011.
She has participated in several artistic events over the years, including the Foire internationale d'art contemporain (FIAC) in Paris, the Biennale de Montréal, and McGill University's Francofête.
In October 2019, she led the creation of collective artwork with over 70 participants at Montreal's Lambert-Closse primary school in October, 2019. She also created several murals for community organizations and elementary schools.
Consistent with her background as a teacher, she has taught visual art classes for over a dozen years in elementary and high schools, as well as in adult education contexts. In 2022, she taught life drawing courses at the private graduate school, Rubika, an enriching experience which she will repeat next year.
She has exhibited her work in several cities in France (Montpellier, Castries, Gréoux-Les-Bains) and in Canada, notably at the Galerie Art Neuf in Montreal, where she presented her series « Je me souviens » (I remember), composed of 15 drawn and written portraits of seniors on the theme of intergenerational transmission.
Julie Bramond from McGill University writes, "In light of the conversations she has with her models, Madjin offers portraits that are truer than life, attempting to capture the souls of the viewer through the power of the gaze."
In June 2022, in the heart of Montréal’s entertainment district, Madjin created a live work before an audience during a Radio CIBL 101.5 show on artificial intelligence and art.
She was later selected by Cutlture C to exhibit her series « Femme en puissance » (Powerful women) in October, 2022, at the Maison Lenoblet-Duplessis (historic site dating from 1714), as well as to create a live work before an audience in the city, Contrecoeur, and to offer a portrait painting workshop amidst her exposition.
MADJIN/SON ART
The artist continues to find inspiration in her formative travel experiences in Europe, Africa and Latin America. She likes to work with large canvases, manipulate bright colours and explore both abstract and figurative approaches : "I like to bring my paintings to life, make them jump out of the frame. "
In this manner, she created a series of very colorful portraits of women during the pandemic, which she entitled, « Femme en puissance » (Powerful women). Through these portraits, she hopes to express the strength and beauty of women in all their diversity.
" Karine Martineau – Madjin – is a socially engaged artist who represents women through bright and magnificent colors. She honors minority women and women who are under-represented. " Maagnyeta Kodjo
Her figurative creations follow and feed into her abstract works, and vice versa. She integrates gestures and her color palette into her portraits.
Her abstract works stem from sheer spontaneity. Her creative process is creative and instinctive.
When she creates, Madjin allows herself to be influenced by the emotions of the moment. Her approach is gestural, rich in textures and movements. She likes to use the paint straight out of the jar, in a quick movement, like a liberating gesture. She works on the floor and paints several canvases at the same time, which allows her to concentrate on composition.
Madjin works mainly with a spatula, then integrates the roller, the brush and even her hands / fingers. In her paintings, she often adds dripping which allows fluidity and serves as a common thread with the rest of the composition. Her canvases come in bright colors, their surfaces fully covered with paint, or sometimes, more airy. Allowing the appearance of blank medium is recurrent in her paintings.
According to Madjin, the more the paint breathes, the more beautiful the composition. Its variations follow the artist's personal evolution. She practices abstract art because the possibilities are endless and the viewers can invent their own story, letting themselves be immersed in color, getting lost in forms and matter. She creates passionate, colorful, bright and inspiring artwork.
Recently, she has begun collecting and recovering old canvases gleaned from the streets of Montreal or from people's homes, giving them a second life. It is also a kind of conservation approach, deliberately leaving visible traces of the original painting. It thus allows a subtle dialogue between the reused canvas's past and the creation that evolves from one artist to another.
Madjin likes going beyond her comfort zone and her practice knows no bounds. She also paints with watercolors and chinese ink and creates immensely colorful body paintings in collaboration with dancers, choreographers and musicians.
Recently, her paintings have been printed on various goods such as clothing and bags in collaboration with well-known Quebecois designers.