grazerkunstverein

Martin Maloney
17/09/2026—13/12/2026

Press preview: Thu 17.04.26, 11:00am.
Registration via office@grazerkunstverein.org

Artist biography

Martin Maloney (1938–2003) was an American artist associated with the Conceptual  art movement. After leaving university in 1962, he traveled through Canada and Mexico  before returning to New York, where he lived on the Bowery. In the mid-1960s, he shifted from painting toward conceptual and site-based practices, following encounters with  artists including Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman. 

From 1967 on, Maloney developed works including Stretcher Structures and Reject Object Wall, followed by the Single Word Wall Works and Double Word Wall Works, which used  language in relation to specific spaces. His oeuvrework subsequently incorporated land scape, architecture, bodily action, and duration. In 1970, he moved to Amsterdam and  became active in the European art scene, exhibiting and working with institutions and  galleries including Galleria Sperone, MTL Brussels, Konrad Fischer, and Art & Project. 

During the early 1970s, Maloney produced temporary, performative and site-specific  works including Intercepts, Bullshit, Intervention, Displaced Space, Transfer Rights, and  Intercourse. These works addressed the conditions of exhibition, the circulation of art works, and the relationship between artist, site, and institution. Maloney also destroyed  a substantial amount of his work. 

In 1995, Maloney moved to Antwerp, where he lived and worked at Jordaenskaai 13. His  later works included paintings, sculptures, and installations made with materials from  his studio and surroundings, including wood, doors, floorboards, plaster, wallpaper, fabric, and canvas. He died in Antwerp in 2003.