Gabriel Martinez (artist)

Gabriel Martinez
Born1973 [1]
Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States
EducationColumbia University
Alma mater
[2]
Websitegabrielmartinezartist.com

Gabriel Martinez (born 1973 in Alamogordo, New Mexico) is an artist, writer, and performer based in Houston, Texas[3], working mostly in sculpture, installation and performance.

Martinez graduated from Columbia University[4] in 2007 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Arts. Martinez attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture [5] in 2006 and the Whitney Independent Study Program [6]. He was a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship [7] recipient in 2019. Martinez has been an artist-in-residence at both the Joan Mitchell Center [8] and at MacDowell.[9]

Martinez's work over the last twenty-two years digs into the relationship between art, public space and collective memory in order to uncover lost social histories. Martinez has established a set of ongoing gestures based on his interactions with American cities, including urban guerrilla interventions, gathering and repurposing street debris and re-appropriations of public semiotic codes. Martinez understands the relationship between art and public spaces not from the standpoint of an integration with architecture and the landscape, but in a more radical if precarious, civic sense of art in the public interest. Wandering through the narrow shoulders of car-centric cities, Martinez operates as a gleaner in a wasteland, rummaging through glass, bricks, trash and signage. The public artist becomes a rag picker of signs and refuse.[10]

His best-known for his publication Garments Gathered from the Street Are Placed Back Into Circulation As Luxury Objects Published in 2025 by Sabian Press.[11]

Martinez held the position of Editor-in-Chief of Glasstire from January 2024 to April 2025 [12] and is director of Alabama Song Houston [13] an experimental sound art space.

Martinez's work has been exhibited extensively: the Leather Archives & Museum (2023-2024);[14] the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2006); Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL (2004); Philadelphia Art Alliance (2003); Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia (1998, 1995); White Columns, New York, NY (1995). Over seventy group exhibitions since 1989, including Exit Art, NY (2006, 2005); Art Mur Gallery, Montreal, Canada (2005); Gallery Muu, Helsinki, Finland (2004); Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA (2004); Miami Art Central, Miami, FL (2004); Goliath Visual Space, Brooklyn, NY (2004); Samson Projects, Boston (2004); Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY (2000); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2000); Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia, PA (1998); Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998, 1997); Franklin Furnace, New York (1997); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (1996); Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995); ABC No Rio, New York (1992).

Books and catalogues

  • Self-Portraits (Samson Projects, 2007)
  • Garments Gathered from the Street Are Placed Back Into Circulation As Luxury Objects (Sabian Press, 2025)[15]

References

  1. ^ "Gabriel Martinez: Everything Turns Away Quite Leisurely".
  2. ^ "Gabriel Martinez". 16 January 2025.
  3. ^ "Gabriel Martinez". 16 January 2025.
  4. ^ "Gabriel Martinez".
  5. ^ "Skowhegan".
  6. ^ "Gabriel Martinez". 16 January 2025.
  7. ^ "Gabriel Martinez". 12 September 2025.
  8. ^ "Gabriel Martinez". 12 September 2025.
  9. ^ "Gabriel Martinez - MacDowell Fellow in Visual Arts".
  10. ^ "Gabriel Martinez: Everything Turns Away Quite Leisurely".
  11. ^ Martinez, Gabriel (December 2025). Garments Gathered from the Street Are Placed Back into Circulation as Luxury Objects. Sabian Press. ISBN 978-1-966518-01-3.
  12. ^ "Glasstire Names Gabriel Martinez as Editor-in-Chief". 2 January 2024.
  13. ^ https://alabamasonghouston.com/ Alabama Song Houston
  14. ^ Lepique, Annette (2024-01-08). "When Etienne Grew Wings: A Review of "Sparks in a Dark Room" at the Leather Archives & Museum". Newcity Art. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  15. ^ Martinez, Gabriel (December 2025). Garments Gathered from the Street Are Placed Back Into Circulation As Luxury Objects. Sabian Press. ISBN 978-1-966518-01-3.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.