Photo Credit: Greg Zaragoza

Mark Anthony Martinez, MFA

Visual Artist \ Curator

b. 1987BFA; Intermedia, Pacific Northwest College of Art, 2012
MFA; Contemporary Art Practices, Portland State University, 2014
Based in San Antonio, TX


Upcoming \ Currently On View

Photo Credit: Greg Zaragoza
Photo Credit: Greg Zaragoza

"All About Me," but dont worry, that's just the title. For this show we invited over 45 artists from San Antonio and surrounding areas to create a work of art based on the concept of self-portraiture. This is going to be our first large scale group exhibition in our space and we are excited to have you all experience this show.Opening August 23rd 7pm to 11pm
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC


Video Work

A collection of relevant video works and documentation of previous installations. See my Vimeo for more info.

"I'M NOT A COWBOY...," solo exhibition documentation, Clamp Light Artist Studios & Gallery, 2024

“HE GOT IT," 3 minute video excerpt, original video duration 00:14:45”, 2024

“Reverse Manifest Destiny,” video installation, originally created for the group show “IM\MATERIAL CONCERNS\,” 1906, San Antonio.

“Didactic/Musings,” single channel video, originally created for the group show “Not Quite January,” 1906, San Antonio. Runtime 18:42”

“art/worker,” video performance on PVM, created for the group show “ART/WORKER,” curated by Michael Martinez then selected for the curation “Vernacular Systems,” curated by Christopher Blay, 2024

“i did it to myself,” solo exhibition video pile documentation of “the doom scroll,” in the project space JANUARY, 2023.

SPECTRE, single channel video installation, exhibiting in tandem with the classic theatre’s production of “Measure for Measure,” San Antonio, 2023

“Brown Sugar,” A three hour performance neutralizing the radical within the artist; culminating in a “safer” brown hue. Originally performed at Recess, a project space in Portland, OR.


Visual Art Documentation

A portfolio of previously exhibited visual works and documentation of installations. See my instagram or follow me on Blue Sky (links below) for more information on upcoming studio happenings.


Artist Biography

Mark Anthony Martinez is a conceptual artist and curator based in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Martinez holds a BFA in Intermedia Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (2012) and an MFA in Studio Art from Portland State University (2014).His studio practice, has had him exhibit in numerous group shows locally and nationally, including; The Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, TX (2024), Centro de Artes, San Antonio, TX (2020), The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center Inc., New York, NY (2019), The Open as part of the Nicholas Frank Public Library, Milwaukee, Wi. (2017), Mexic-Arte in Austin, TX. (2017) and, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, Il. (2014). In 2024, Martinez ended the year with his tenth solo exhibition titled “I’m Not A Cowboy,” featured at the Clamp Light Artist Studios & Gallery in San Antonio, Texas.Martinez has served as Visual Arts Director to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (2015-2017), Gallery Manager for the Michael and Noemi Neidorff Art Gallery at Trinity University (2018), co-curator for the experimental pop-up space, Fake Gallery (2019), co-director of the short lived project space entitled JANUARY (2023) and currently co-curator to both INTERLOPER and The S.M.A.R.T. Project Space (501c3); respective arts incubators within the "1906 Studio."

Artist Statement

I’m a conceptual artist whose bulk of my practice revolves around my own relation to racial whiteness as a visibly brown individual.Through my art; 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” as well as the historical violence of assimilation.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 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.


SELECTED PRESS


IMPORTANT LINKS