56 HENRY is pleased to present What's Up Fam?, an exhibition of new work by Kunle Martins. The show, comprising a group of graphite portraits on found cardboard, will be on view from January 24th through March 8th, 2020. What's Up Fam? marks Kunle Martins' first solo presentation with 56 HENRY.

Looking at the portraits that artist Kunle Martins creates of his loved ones, I observe the wanness of double-tapping quick approval on a friend’s face in a newsfeed. It really is the limpest gesture of love we can muster, isn’t it? Certainly as compared to the slow and meticulous study visible in Martins’ work—in the indexical smudges of graphite on (to quote the artist) “Abused White Cardboard” found usually behind a Costco. These materials are readily available to all, and Kunle’s works gently suggest that I might connect with a bit more intention to what is already all around me.

Is there anything that defines our lives more than our relationships with others (via their bodies, their spirits, their words, their art)? I can think of no greater influence on my own; and as I age, I grow ever more fascinated with the profound gift that is longterm relationship. When you can push further and further alongside someone else, the discoveries are manifold and expansive, bringing with them tears of relief in understanding.

Kunle's continued dedication to portraiture sets him apart; he has drawn his friends and lovers in unbroken accumulation for twenty years - like the On Kawara of crackling, interpersonal bonds. Kunle left his biological family home at only sixteen years old, and his portraits belie an investigation of identity not guided by the inherent lens of the self, but via a potent exchange of subjectivity between himself and those intimate with him. In lovingly interpreting and processing the image of a friend’s face through his own mind and body, he reveals not only his perception of the sitter but the grace of being himself known by that person. Where many of us at sixteen might be mired in a forced tangle of self-definition, Kunle’s teenage self seemed to instinctively understand that “individual identity” in itself has no meaning. Without receivers or mirrored subjectivities to behold, impact, and relate to, individual subjectivity becomes the proverbial tree falling in the forest. When working at its best, the self is a bead of dew held to a web of love.

So in these portraits, we not only see the faces of artists, skaters, musicians, and filmmakers but also the interconnected identity of Kunle himself: his bonded nature, his caring eye, his humble yet monumental investments, and the endless gifts he receives in kind. This is culture! Let’s not forsake it!

-Blair Hansen

Kunle F. Martins was born in 1980, in New York, NY where he currently lives and works. Known for the past two decades as Earsnot, Martins was a founding member of the infamous IRAK crew, a group of New York graffiti artists. His work has been the subject of numerous presentations both stateside and abroad, including a solo show at Shoot The Lobster (New York) and group shows at The Hole (New York), Beyond the Streets (New York), White Columns Benefit Auction (New York), Amelchenko (New York), Jeffrey Stark (New York), Bonnie Poon (Paris), Coney Art Walls (New York), Wynwood Walls (Miami), Los Angeles MoCA, and Clayton Patterson Gallery (New York).

For further information about the exhibition, please contact the gallery at info@56henry.nyc, or +1 (518) 966-2622.