The Wow Factor
by René Grayre
First encountering Philip Martoglio’s paintings and sculptures, one might think — or rather, sense — “Wow.” Or perhaps “weird” or “awesome.” Maybe simply “outrageous” or, most likely, some combination of all three as you hear the clang and feel the distinct sensation of clarity and truth suddenly banging against the side of your head. Certainly, one smiles — because Mr. Martoglio is having fun, and we’re invited in.
There’s a great deal of wit and intelligence in this work, and the layers only deepen as one pushes past the surface subject matter, which is at times arcane, at others deceptively facile. At first blush — and some folks in some quarters very well might — it can seem a mixed bag.
There are portraits, of course, and of friends; but past those, this is a world of Hollywood Babylon and Minsky’s Burlesque; women’s Roller Derbies and Friday night wrestling with Gorgeous George. Of Freaks and Eraserhead, Fred Astaire and Busby Berkley; Xavier Cugat and Keely Smith.
The paintings are striking and playful, abounding with word play, visual play —interplay — and their joy and sometimes dark whimsey celebrate a lost American pop culture which is nevertheless still ever-present, ever-changing, always with us and timeless.
Like Warhol, Martoglio looks at and plays with the commercial pop veneer, the cultural icons and pastimes of the moment. Like John Waters, his work can push that same cultural envelope to its most outrageous edge, making unexpected and radical juxtapositions.
Some of the titles tell it: Mussolini in Heaven; The Three Graces/Lesbian Illusions; the startling sculpture The 7 Deadly Sins - interpreted as the “bad girls” from Martoglio’s high school days. Along with strippers and transvestites, these are works that explore the film noir/bête noire side of life, the bump-and-grind, shuck and jive side of the American dream.
Martoglio was born in Brooklyn,which is appropriate since Brooklyn was known at one time as the “city of churches,” and he’s the most catholic of artists; that’s “catholic” with a small “c” and in the purest sense of the word, with “universal, all-inclusive, broad and comprehensive” tastes.
He graduated from SUNY at Stony Brook, New York, and has been a long time resident of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. All these places have added to the mix, as does this little story. When asked about Brooklyn, he said:
"I remember when I was very young in Brooklyn, my mother used to take me to a Chinese restaurant for lunch sometimes, the Ridgewood Terrace Chinese, where they had strip shows at night.
There, in the afternoons, you’d find reasonable Chinese food at lunchtime; but at night, almost every night, they had strip shows onstage, and glamorous pictures of all the sometimes interesting, but always fabulous girls in the lobby."
— René Grayre, 2012
Copyright © 2012 René Grayre