Bio

Mark Anthony Martinez is a conceptual artist and curator based in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Martinez holds a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (2012) and an MFA from Portland State University (2014). Martinez has served as Visual Arts Director to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (2015-2017), Gallery Manager for the Michael and Noemi Neidorff Gallery at Trinity University (2018) and, co-curator for the experimental pop-up space, Fake Gallery (2019). He’s also exhibited in group shows around the country, including; Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, Il. (2014), The Open as part of the Nicholas Frank Public Library, Milwaukee, Wi. (2017), Mexic-Arte in Austin, TX. (2017) and, The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center Inc., New York, NY (2019). He is currently co-director of JANUARY, a project space which programs for San Antonio’s Second Saturday artwalk.

Resume (PDF)

Artist Statement of Work

Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):

Statement

My practice is a conceptual project spanning a multitude of media and tones revolving most broadly around themes of racialized identity. Wherein, a majority of my works express my own relation and adjacency to white identity as a visibly brown individual. I employ self-portraiture, text and oblique references to the white body as it exists as a disembodied ideal — challenging the western notion of white as “neutral.”

Although this type of work encompasses a majority of my exhibited artwork, there are other subjects I’m eager to explore. Subjects such as labor, science fiction, the erotic and ecological conservation. However, these next creative endeavors come with the understanding that all of my work is created from a space that fully recognizes that I am a person of color.

Culturally Specific Art Category

Select Culturally Specific Art Category:: Hispanic or Latino/a/x

PHOTOS

  • Gallery 1 - Mark Martinez
  • Gallery 2 - Mark Martinez
  • Gallery 3 - Mark Martinez
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  • Gallery 5 - Mark Martinez
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  • Gallery 8 - Mark Martinez
  • Gallery 9 - Mark Martinez
  • Gallery 10 - Mark Martinez
  • (off) white power, installation view, fabrication credit: King of Neon, Photo Credit: Luis M. Garza

VIDEOS

  • Excerpt from a three hour performance neutralizing the radical within the artist; culminating in a (safer) brown hue. Originally performed at RECESS space in Portland, Oregon.

Contact information

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