Artists who find their calling at 30 may not have their works appreciated for some years to come. But for Argentinian artist Martin Kazanietz this is not the case.

His inspiration coming from playing 5-a-side football near to where he opened his studio, lead to the amateur footballer culture being the inspiration for him winning many admirers on the art scene.

Martin Kazanietz's work draws on family origins, a sense of place and freedom rarely seen in artists work, looking to document and celebrate the culture they cherish. 

We caught up with the artist to find out more about his process, origins and love of football culture.

Cult Kits: First things first, Martin... Who do you support?

Martin Kazanietz: Boca Juniors. 

CK: That was said with love, Martin! So where's home? Can you tell us a bit more about where you're from you're family etc?

MK: I Was Born in Buenos Aires, but my parents moved to my mom's hometown, General Pico, La Pampa when I was a baby, so I grew up there. I went back to study graphic design in Buenos Aires and I lived there for 17 years. Now and since 2019 I live in Viedma, Patagonia Argentina with my girlfriend Anita and my two dogs. 

My family has early XX century immigrant heritage (Catholic from Italy and Spain from my mother's side. Jewish from Russia and Poland from my parent's side). 

My family from both sides comes from a middle class background. My parents are both artists. My mother specializes in college and teaching and my father in drawing and sculpting. I have two siblings, my older sister is a designer and my younger brother is an architect. 

 

 

CK:  What's your earliest footballing memory?

MK:  Playing fútbol from when I woke up with my friends on my block, till I went to bed. Moving from one place to the other dribbling an invisible ball instead of just walking. Diving as a goalkeeper to an invisible ball alone in my parent's bed while watching Boca´s Navarro Montoya on tv. Drawing goalkeepers. Destroying my parents' beloved artifacts around the house while trying free kicks. My first Family Game (a Nintendo bootleg console) with GOAL a pixelated game which POV was from the top.

CK:  Tell us a bit about your painting – it's style and origins ...

MK:  As I said, I used to draw goalkeepers as a little kid. Then I stopped drawing at all. At 18 years old started studying at UBA (Buenos Aires University), first audiovisual design, then graphic design. I reconnected with image making, but I thought of myself as an awful drawer.

I met a friend while working in a design studio and he introduced me to graffiti. I started hanging out with all graffiti writers and I started to doodle and write graffiti with them. I never connected with vandalism, but I fell in love with the spontaneity of it, the use of limited material, the expressive possibility of using almost the whole body and using the city as a playground. I painted a lot of graffiti for a few years, and I became quite good at it.

 

 

Two friends from that circle started a studio that produced murals for big projects, and I started to work with them as an assistant, and at one point I started creating my own artworks. First my graffiti name shifted to characters, then those characters shifted to big murals, and then I took my practice to the studio. I realized It was always inside me, but I lacked discipline. I think painting in the street gave me the discipline I needed.

When I started working on my studio work, we were playing weekly amateur 5 a side fútbol with all the graffiti crew (weekly 5 a side is mandatory here). So I decided I wanted to paint about argentinian amateur football culture, a subject I thought was crucial for our culture, but it wasn't addressed that much in art. I simultaneously started studying art history on my own, and I connected with South American and argentine painters.

CK: How long have you been capturing football culture and fans?

MK: It's been about 9 years now, I started painting in my studio in 2015. I was almost 30 years old.

 

 

CK: What artists influence or inspire you?

MK: I was inspired by Florencio Molina Campos as a kid. He only depicted gaucho life in rural Argentina in a charichaturistic way with humour, my grandmother had calendars with copies of his paintings in her house. When I started to paint about local fútbol I thought someone should try and be the Molina Campos of amateur fútbol instead of gauchos. 

Antonio Berni of course is a huge reference in terms of local painters, and historically I would say my favourite painter is Goya, the combination of how he addressed the subject, humour and darkness combined with his master flow of brushstroke amazes me everytime I get to see one of his paintings. 

 

 

I´m inspired by other media like 90´s music videos and movies. I was really into Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze as a teenager, also with local Babasonicos and Illya kuryaki´s videos. 

I was also heavily inspired by early 2000´s absurd humour like Todo x 2 Pesos (Pedro Saborido and Diego Capusotto).

CK: What draws you to painting scenes of football, players and fans?

MK: First of all, I always thought there was a gap there, something that needed to be done, and it wasn't being addressed. I felt an urge to do it.

I also think it's a great excuse to talk about other subjects that are more important: Identity, fragile masculinity in decay, Argentinity , and even a critique to the industry of massive consumption of international fútbol which I absolutely hate to love.

 

 

CK: What are your plans for the year ahead?...

MK: I´m now participating in a show about fútbol kits and art at OOF Gallery inside the Spurs Stadium in London. I will be participating in a huge show about sports at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in October, I will be participating at ArteBA (Buenos Aires Art Fair) in September with Atocha Gallery, and I will have my first solo show in Buenos Aires after five years in November also with Atocha Gallery. I´m also working on a few other projects but I can't say anything about it or else I will jinx it all.

 

 

CK: Do you have any exciting collaborations coming up?

MK: I recently did an installation of only goalkeepers for my latest solo show at La Causa Galería in Madrid. I would say that one.

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You can view more of Martin Kazanietz work here.