Mark Anthony Martinez, MFA
Visual Artist
b. 1987BFA; Intermedia, Pacific Northwest College of Art, 2012
MFA; Contemporary Art Practices, Portland State University, 2014Based in San Antonio, TX
Upcoming \ Currently On View
Voyager 3: Artifacts of Humanity is a curation dedicated to presenting contemporary artifacts, ideas, and visual cues to encapsulate what it means to be human from an artist’s perspective in the 21st century. Referencing NASA’s Voyager missions of the 1970s, curators Mark Anthony Martinez and Maverick Pascal introduce artifacts to help extraterrestrial civilizations contextualize our species and offer humans a deeper self-understanding.The show parallels the golden records on the original Voyager probes with the art displayed in the Carver gallery. VOYAGER 3 envisions what a contemporary probe might contain if artists defined “human” in the 21st century. If launched, these artifacts could drift through space for billions of years, long after the Earth and humanity are gone.As curators and artists, it’s compelling to consider the legacies we leave behind. Will our probe convey our hopes and dreams, or will our creativity become mere cosmic debris?
Video Work
A collection of relevant video works and documentation of previous installations. See my Vimeo for more info.
“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 recently exhibited visual works and documentation of installations. See my instagram for more information on upcoming studio happenings.
“Didactic/Musings,” single channel video (using 2 media players), Installation View at the 1906 as part of the group show “Not Quite January,” co-curated by Allysha Farmer, 2024
Still Frame: from single channel video “Didactic/Musings,” 2024
Still Frame: from single channel video “Didactic/Musings,” 2024
“art/worker,” installation view still image, 2023 (2024)
“No New White Friends,” neon art (fabrication credit King of Neon) (c/o Casie Lomeli’s Collection) and “art/worker,” video performance on PVM, as featured at the SA Contemporary for the curation “Vernacular Systems,” curated by Christopher Blay, 2024
art/worker installation as ft. in the group show “ART/WORKER” consisting of two separate single channel videos and custom printed brown tote bag, JANUARY, 2023
“i did it to myself,” solo exhibition installation view at the project space JANUARY, 2023. Photo credit: Luis M Garza, 2023
“i did it to myself,” solo exhibition installation view at the project space JANUARY, 2023. Photo credit: Luis M Garza, 2023
“i did it to myself,” solo exhibition installation view at the project space JANUARY, 2023. Photo credit: Luis M Garza, 2023
SPECTRE, single channel video installation, exhibiting in tandem with the classic theatre’s production of “Measure for Measure,” San Antonio, 2023
SPECTRE, single channel video installation, exhibiting in tandem with the classic theatre’s production of “Measure for Measure,” San Antonio, 2023
Installation View, Acrylic paintings on vinyl on view at Carbon Bloom as a part of the two-person exhibition “A New Shade of Idiosyncrasy,” San Antonio, 2022
"I want my cake and I want to fuck it too," acrylic on vinyl, Carbon Bloom, San Antonio, 2022
"Idyllic Landscape," acrylic on vinyl, Carbon Bloom, San Antonio, Courtesy Daniel Alejandro Gonzalez’ Collection, 2022 (2023)
installation view at FREIGHT gallery & studios, as ft. in the group exhibition "Images of Power," co-curated by Alana Coates, 2018"
"(off) white power," neon courtesy of the "King of Neon", Courtesy Manuel Diz’ collection, 2017
installation view at Mexic-Arte, as featured in the group exhibition “YLA 22: AHORA,” curated by Alana Coates, fabrication credit King of Neon, photo credit Andrea Rampone, 2017
"No New White Friends," as featured in the group exhibition “YLA 22: AHORA,” curated by Alana Coates, at the Mexic-Arte, 2017. Neon fabrication credit King of Neon, photo credit Andrea Rampone, 2017
"Flesh wound," foamboard cut out, featured in the two-person exhibition “Profiling Made Visible,” curated by David S. Rubin at the Bihl Haus Arts, photo credit Luis M. Garza, 2016
"White Out," self portrait digital collage, 2014. Featured in the two-person exhibition “Profiling Made Visible,” curated by David S. Rubin at the Bihl Haus Arts, photo credit Luis M. Garza, 2016
Artist Statement
I’m a conceptual artist whose bulk of my practice revolves around a project spanning a multitude of media and tones revolving most broadly around themes of racial identity. Wherein, a majority of my works express my own relation 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.”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.