A Gift of Tears

Robert Martin's solo exhibition, A Gift of Tears, at EDJI Gallery in Brussels, presents a new body of work encompassing watercolour, painting, and installation. The exhibition is a personal reflection on faith, memory, and queer belonging, influenced by the artist's time in Belgium and observations of churches, stained glass, and religious art. Martin absorbs the atmosphere of these sacred references, integrating elements like coloured glass, stillness, gold, symmetry, and light into their visual language. This dialogue merges sacred imagery with the artist's own experiences of rural landscapes, animals, folklore, and queer histories.

The practice of Robert Martin often explores queerness within rural America, focusing on overlooked regional cultures and the quiet tenderness within communities. In "A Gift of Tears," this focus takes on a devotional quality, presenting queerness as a luminous presence moving through various forms. Eight watercolours translate the feeling of stained glass, with natural elements appearing in intricate compositions. Panel works introduce an intimate atmosphere with figures against sunset skies, recalling Byzantine painting. Two large oil paintings and seven poles topped with three-dimensional geese symbolize migration, protection, and collective care, framing the exhibition as an exploration of the intimate sacred and the luminous force of queer presence.