Marisol Martinez

Bio/CV: Uncommon as her expression, Marisol Martinez’s story begs telling. After cutting her media teeth on the moving picture, the former Vice President of Video at Atlantic Records is now finding her pulse as a visual artist whose use of color reflects a complicated, exuberant life.

She is a painter who contrasts both thru color and subject matter, often spatial as well as prismatic. The unguided stillness of each shape is a meditative process individually created to compliment the other. The interconnection of shapes and colors offer insight into Martinez unique experience of the world creating a visually spiritual vocabulary. She confronts the curious, the heartbreaking and the maddening experiences of living life so close to death. Daughter of a funeral director, Martinez inherited her father’s business after his passing in 2017. This familial legacy, combined with daily glimpses at the face of death, has allowed Martinez to tap into a spirituality that’s become the mystical centerpiece of her work.

Martinez has lived and studied in Paris, Miami and Los Angeles. Her works emerge from mornings spent at the funeral home, and afternoons and evenings spent in the studio—and their constant mingling of presences. Broader inspiration follows a family lineage of women whose creativity encouraged Martinez to express herself visually. Artist influences such as Carmen Herrera, Agnes Martin, Alma Thomas, Luchita Hurtado & Josef Albers are deeply faceted components in her process and work. In addition to painting, Martinez was a feature writer for UNDO magazine, an alternative wellness magazine, where she focuses on subjects tackling mental health.

She earned her BBA in Design/Art Marketing from Parsons School of Design, having attended both New York and Paris campuses.

Artist Statement: In past decades, Latina Abstract Artists have largely been overlooked by the mainstream artworld. It is in recent years these women have seen any commercial/critical/museum recognition which coincidentally only has happened later in their lives, i.e. their 80’s, 90’s plus. As a Latina Abstract Artist, I feel that it is my responsibility to help raise the visibility of this community that has long been existent, with hopes to recenter the narrative around this younger cohort of artists that are still engaged in this work today. My work is a continued conversation led by Latina abstract artists such as Carmen Herrera and Luchita Hurtado. As an Abstract female artist, a practice traditionally led by males, I find strength-power in the fight to break barriers to help create new lanes for female artists in the future.

Selected Exhibitions: 2022 Homecoming: Artist Alumni Exhibition - Kates-Ferri Projects - New York, NY, Look Again: Abstraction exhibition curated by Michael Molby at Hudson Hall – Hudson, NY 2021 XX: Latina Abstract Group Exhibition with Latchkey Gallery - New York, NY 2019 Inversions:Contemporary Art inspired by Architect Louis Kahn curated by Melinda Wang of MJ PROJECTS, Roosevelt Island, NY

Residencies: 2021 Kates-Ferri Projects Artist Residency - New York, NY

Selected Collections: Morris Adjmi Architects, Kates-Ferri Collection

Selected Press: CRUSHfanzine, The Latinx Project, Undo Magazine

Social: @soloexhibit