Victoria Martinez Victoria Martínez ESP ENG BIO BIO Victoria Martínez La artista interdisciplinar Victoria Martínez crea textiles, instalaciones, murales, pinturas y grabados inspirados en su herencia mexicano-estadounidense, la arquitectura, la arqueología y los entornos urbanos. Ella describe su obra como una documentación visual de lugares en el tiempo, identificándose especialmente con la cartografía como marco conceptual. Cada abstracción que construye Martínez se construye con capas de significado: imágenes extraídas de lugares a los que ha viajado, paseos por el barrio, los murales de una estación de tren o un motivo de un tejido indígena. Sus obras se convierten en archivos de experiencias vividas, capturando una historia personal enraizada en el espacio público. Martínez es licenciada en Bellas Artes por el Minneapolis College of Art and Design y tiene un máster en Pintura y Grabado por la Escuela de Arte de la Universidad de Yale. Ha expuesto internacional en la Galería de Arte de la Universidad de Yale, el National Museum of Mexican Art en Chicago, la Incubadora de arte de la Universidad de Chicago, la Universidad Northwestern y en el salón de exposiciones de la Galería Perrotin. Entre sus próximos proyectos figuran una exposición individual en el  Chicago Cultural Center y un experimento de arte y poesía en colaboración con el Festival Lit & Luz del Museo Universitario del Chopo / UNAM. También ha recibido la beca Climate Engagement through Art in Cities de la Universidad de Yale. Interdisiciplinary artist Victoria Martinez creates textiles, installations, murals, paintings, and prints inspired by her Mexican-American heritage, architecture, archaeology, and urban environments. She describes her work as visually documenting places in time, particularly identifying with cartography as a conceptual framework. Each abstraction that Martinez constructs is built with layers of meaning- imagery drawn from places she has traveled, walks through the neighborhood, the murals of a train station, or a motif from an indigenous weaving. Her works become archives of lived experience, capturing a personal history rooted in public space.Martinez holds a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting and Printmaking. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the University of Chicago Arts Incubator, Northwestern University, and through the Perrotin Gallery viewing salon. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at The Chicago Cultural Center and a collaborative art and poetry experiment through the Lit & Luz Festival at Museo Universitario del Chopo / UNAM. She is also a recipient of the Climate Engagement through Art in Cities fellowship at Yale University. Karina Aguilera Karina Aguilera Skvirsky es una artista multidisciplinar que trabaja principalmente con fotografía, video y performance. Actualmente es Profesora Asociada de Arte en Lafayette College, Easton, PA. De manera regular trabaja en exposiciones individuales y colectivas, ha participado en bienales como en la de Cuenca, comisariada por Dan Cameron (2016) o en la de São Paulo (2010). Ha sido beneficiaria de numerosas residencias y becas. Actualmente está produciendo"Cómo construir un muro y otras ruinas" gracias a la beca obtenida en 2019 por parte de Creative Capital. Su obra se puede ver en ferias como, ARCO Madrid, NADA Miami o PArc Lima, a donde acude regularmente con las galerías que la representan. Su obra forma parte de importantes colecciones como la Urbes Mutantes, el Whitney Museum of American Art, el SFMOMA el Art Institute of Chicago, así como numerosas colecciones privadas Karina Aguilera Skvirsky is a multidisciplinary artist that works mainly with photographs, video, and performance. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Art at Lafayette College, Easton PA. She frequently works in solo and group exhibitions, she has participated in various biennials including the Cuenca Biennial, which was curated by Dan Cameron in 2016, and the São Paulo Biennial in 2010. She has participated in numerous residencies and received multiple grants. Currently, she is in the production phase of a new project, “How to buld a wall and other ruin” that is being funded by a 2019 Creative Capital grant. Her work can be seen in fairs such as ARCO Madrid, NADA Miami or PARC Lima, where she regularly exhibits with the galleries that represent her. Her work is included in the following collections: Urbes Muatantes, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as numerous private collections. Las obras de Victoria Martínez son una amalgama de imágenes, patrones y símbolos adoptados de fuentes aparentemente dispares. Las fibras de colores brillantes nos recuerdan la pulpa de la fruta madura; las formas geométricas evocan la cuadrícula de la ciudad entremezclada con salpicaduras de graffiti. Las obras y bocetos que aquí se presentan están acompañados de un conjunto de referencias visuales como texturas, marcas, colores y estructuras que se encuentran a lo largo de las obras de Martinez. Aunque estas referencias no son explícitamente citaciones, son una impronta estética en toda la práctica de la artista. Martinez se inspira a través de su investigación histórico-artística, profundizando en catálogos como “Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985”, o la obra de artistas como Claire Zeisler. Estas referencias se yuxtaponen a imágenes encontradas en las aceras, como los símbolos pintados con aerosol por trabajadores de la construcción o la fachada desmantelada de un banco en el barrio de Pilsen, Chicago, donde creció. Martinez recuerda su inmersión diaria en el arte público, contemplando murales a lo largo de las calles y una estación de tren adornada con colores. Estas experiencias le inculcaron el aprecio por el arte en los espacios públicos y una extraña habilidad para encontrar la belleza en lugares que a menudo se pasan por alto: pintura descascarillada, ladrillos desmoronándose o viejos anuncios. Al mismo tiempo, Martinez recurre a los viajes y a la conexión con su herencia para infundir capas adicionales de significado a su obra. Utiliza tejidos teñidos con flor de jamaica en homenaje a las técnicas naturales que se cultivan en Oaxaca. Martínez también hace mapas, en un esfuerzo por documentar la experiencia del viaje y como medio de preservar visualmente su propia existencia. Actualmente, Martínez está expandiendo su práctica de modo que sus pinturas y textiles se convierten en instalaciones, creando nuevas formas arquitectónicas. A través de experimentos con la escala y el material, sus obras acogen la interacción y la imaginación, invitando al espectador a navegar por el entorno construido que ha creado. Victoria Martinez’s works are a composite of images, patterns, and symbols adopted from seemingly disparate sources. Brightly colored fibers recall the saturated flesh of ripe fruit; geometric forms bring to mind the city’s grid, interspersed with splashes of graffiti. The works and studies presented here are accompanied by a set of visual references extrapolated as texture, marks, colors, and structures throughout Martinez’s works. Though these references are not explicitly quotations, they have aesthetically imprinted throughout the artist’s practice. Martinez finds inspiration through her art historical research, delving into catalogs such as Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985, or the work of artists like Claire Zeisler. These references are juxtaposed with imagery found along the sidewalk- spray-painted symbols by construction crews or the dismantled façade of a bank in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen, where she grew up. Martinez recalls being immersed in public art on a daily basis, taking in murals along the street and a colorfully adorned train station. These experiences ingrained in her an appreciation for art in public spaces and an uncanny ability to find beauty in often overlooked places- peeling paint, crumbling brick, or old advertisements. Simultaneously, Martinez calls upon travel and connecting to her heritage to infuse additional layers of meaning into her work. She uses hibiscus-dyed textiles in an homage to the natural techniques cultivated in Oaxaca, Mexico. Martinez also makes maps, both in an effort to document the experience of travel and as a means of visually preserving her own existence. Currently, Martinez is expanding how her paintings and textiles become installations, creating new architectural forms. Through experiments with scale and material, her works welcome interaction and imagination, inviting the viewer to navigate the built environment she has created. “When I see you”, 2022, 41” x 38”, Silk, cotton, dyes, house paint, acrylic, oil stick, bleach, and thread. “Room”, 2022, 44”x 33” Silk, cotton, dyes, enamel, acrylic, house paint, and thread. “Room”, 2022, 44”x 33” Silk, cotton, dyes, enamel, acrylic, house paint, and thread. “Bloom recalibration”, 2022, 24”x16”, Silk, cotton, hosiery, tyvek, found bedsheet, yarn, house paint, and thread. “Puzzle Piece 98”, 2022, 7.5x4x3”, enamel, acrylic paint, fiber paste, and hosiery on brick “Puzzle Piece 97”, 2022, 7.5x4x3”, enamel, acrylic paint, fiber paste, and hosiery on brick “Puzzle Piece 99”, 2022, 7.5x4x3”, enamel, acrylic paint, fiber paste, and hosiery on brick Sketchbook drawing, 2023 Sketchbook drawing, 2023 Mixed media collage, fabric, newspaper, party streamers, solo show exhibition postcard, lace, and “The Artists’ Statement” from Public Art Workshop. Drawing made with natural hibiscus dye "Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico 1915-1985" Page 283 Antonio Attolini Lack. Gálvez House, Jardines del Pedregal, Mexico City (plan), 1985; built 1959-60. Cat.23 Claire Zeisler archives from Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University Found marks on the urban environment, New Haven, CT Spraypaint marks on the urban environment, Pilsen, Chicago, IL Grid system on found wooden panel, Chicago IL Found marks on wooden panel, New Haven, CT In-progress mural, New York, NY Found fragmented graffiti on warehouse, Chicago, IL Color panel mural, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico Metal gate, shadows, and color blocks on warehouse, Pilsen, Chicago, IL Mural, New Haven, CT Textile braid experiment video, Horner Park, Chicago, IL El Museo Tamayo e Independent Curators International se asocian para albergar la versión digital de The Backroom. Iniciado en 2005 por Magalí Arriola, Kate Fowle y Renaud Proch, este proyecto de investigación originalmente presencial reúne vídeos, música, fotografías, impresos efímeros, anécdotas o cualquier acción o artefacto que alimente la práctica artística de creadores de diversas disciplinas. En su edición digital iniciada a partir de 2020, a los curadores participantes se les invita a presentar aquello que hay detrás de la práctica de tres artistas. The Backroom es un espacio para descubrir y navegar el arte desde una perspectiva que, más allá del objeto o artefacto artístico, revela cómo el arte es un ejercicio continuo y relacional. Objetos de deseo, archivos personales, bibliotecas, investigación artística, música, rutinas, películas, biografías; el arte está en un intercambio permanente con el mundo que lo rodea. The Museo Tamayo and Independent Curators International partner to host the digital version of The Backroom. Initiated in 2005 by Magalí Arriola, Kate Fowle, and Renaud Proch, this originally in-person research project gathers videos, music, photographs, printed ephemera, anecdotes, or any action or artifact that feeds the artistic practice of creators from diverse disciplines. In its digital edition launched in 2020, the participating curators are invited to present what lies behind the practice of three artists. The Backroom is a space to discover and navigate art from a perspective that, beyond the artistic object or artifact, reveals how art is an ongoing and relational exercise. Objects of desire, personal archives, libraries, artistic research, music, routines, films, biographies; art is in a permanent exchange with the world around it. ACERCA DE ABOUT