Mär Martinez is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in sculptural painting. Informed by her Syrian and Cuban heritage, her work dissects dominance, aggression and power dynamics through the lens of a culturally-enforced binary system. She received a BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History at the University of Central Florida.
Martinez paints elaborate forms under tension on pieces of wood cut with a saw; the violent act of stripping figures from their context leaves forms vulnerable and naked in the outside world. She contrasts the violent, aggressive immediacy of the cut with gentle glazing.
Selected Awards include: Contemplative Practice Fellowship, Fulbright Open Research - Alternate (2023-4), Bridge Ahead Initiative Grant, J.A.S. Student Fellow, FusionFest Best in Show Award, Katherine K. & Jacob Holzer Art Scholarship, Frank Lloyd Wright Scholar Recipient, and the Miniature Fine Arts Society Award. Recent Solo Exhibitions include: Handwoven Histories, AL, Tension Point, FL, Holding Myself Close, FL, Push Comes to Shove, FL, FRACTURE, FL, and Illusions of Safety, PA. Her work is in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Motherhood, Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation, the University of West Georgia Collection, among others.
Martinez has attended many residencies around the US, and is a current semifinalist for the 2024-5 Fulbright. She will be artist-in-residence this summer at Studio Kura, Japan.. She can be reached at www.marmartinezart.com or @meatvoid on Instagram.