Art review: Fergus Martin: Outside/Inside

Green on Red Gallery, Dublin

Fergus Martin is the Cork-born, Dublin-based artist who used to be best-known for his paintings. His current exhibition has none: instead, there are three photographic prints and three sculptural works.

A Chair is the most impressive of the photographs. Its subject is one of those old wooden chairs, sturdy and functional, most people will recall from their grandparents’ homes. It might not have cost much, but as a historical artifact, it’s priceless: it bears all the wear-and-tear of many thousands of sittings, at meals and family occasions. The back of the chair is polished from contact with generations of people’s backs, just as its seat is worn to a dull sheen by generations of backsides. It casts a hard shadow on the bare floor and another softer shadow on the wall behind, which might itself be an abstract painting, composed as it is of a pale pink, with smudges of grey, blue and black.