My work explores structural power dynamics that breed dominance and aggression based on gender, ethnicity, and sexual identity within our society. As an Arab-American woman, my body of work began as first a resistance to culturally-enforced heteronormativity, and has evolved into a dialogue about the exploitative nature of unchecked power imbalances on a greater scale. The culturally enforced binary system of gender constrains self-expression and exacerbates violence. The psycho-sexual struggle for power transcends humans and is fueled by an animalistic drive for control and autonomy.
My work addresses themes of consent as well as power; the ragged edges left from the saw imply a nonconsensual departure by being forcibly cut out. The hand-cutting of the pieces is a crucial part of my process. The violent act of stripping figures from their context mimics how power can be given and taken away. The figures become vulnerable, naked objects in the outside world.
Mär Martinez is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in sculptural painting. 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.
Selected Awards include: Bridge Ahead Initiative Grant, Bronfman Artist Grant Finalist, Jewish Art Salon Student Fellow, FusionFest Best in Show Award, Order of Pegasus Finalist, Katherine K. & Jacob Holzer Art Scholarship, Frank Lloyd Wright Scholar Recipient, and the Miniature Fine Arts Society Award. Select 2021 Upcoming Exhibitions include: GENESIS: The Beginning of Creativity, NY, Raw Fibers, FL, GALEX 55 National Juried Competition, IL, ARTFIELDS 2021, SC, Collaborative Animals, OH and Sugar, Spice, and Not Playing Nice, NY. Select 2020 Solo Exhibitions include: FRACTURE, FL, Illusions of Safety, PA, and Schism, FL. Selected 2020 Exhibitions include: 2020 Florida Biennial, FL, B20: Wiregrass Biennial, AL, Feminine/ Masculine, Hungary, 2020 College Invitational, IN, and Artfields 2020, SC.
In 2020, Martinez was Artist-in-Residence at a printmaking-focused residency in Florida. She was Artist-in-Residence at The Spruce in Pennsylvania and conducted visual research through her sculptural paintings. Martinez is a member of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation Advisory Board in Nyack, NY. She is Gallery Admin at Parkhaus15, a DIY artist-run exhibition space in its seminal year in Orlando, FL. She is Special Programs Director at SOBO Gallery in Winter Garden, and oversees marketing and member relations at the collaborative printing press Flying Horse Editions in Orlando, FL.
In 2021, she was Artist-in-Residence at the Stay Home Residency in Tennessee, and is serving as the summer Curator-in-Residence at the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation in New York. She will be Resident at the M.O.M. Museum in Florida in the fall. Martinez has recently been accepted as Art and History Museums Maitland’s 2022 Artist-in-Action, and will begin her residency this winter.