Every Day is a New Day!

How Can We Mark The Passing Of Time Visually?

Karel Martens’s 365 is a distributed calendar: for every day of 2022, he has created an abstracted form to serve as a number. These 365 unique arrangements were originally constructed using Marten’s signature method of printing letterpress monoprints from found metal forms, and then digitized. The project is presented in FRONT 2022 at Cleveland Public Library and Cleveland Clinic. The work is also visible online at www.frontart.org/365 from January 1 through December 31, 2022.

The piece’s reference to the daily practice of art is a microcosm of Martens’s own approach as a designer and educator. Now in his 80s, Martens has been an influential figure in the visual culture of the Netherlands for many decades. Alongside his commissioned projects, he has maintained a commitment to this personal and iterative way of printing, which shows how creative practice often spans perceived disciplinary boundaries.

Karel Martens, 365, 2022. Digital calendar at frontart.org/365, digital installations at Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Public Library.