Vantage point behind the scenes mario martinez painting
Mario Martinez (born 1953) is a contemporary abstract painter. He is a Native American artist who is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe from New Penjamo (in Scottsdale), the smallest of six Yaqui settlements, in Arizona. He currently lives in New York City. Martinez received his bachelor's degree from School of Art, Arizona State University in Tempe and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been exhibited in 2005 in a one-person retrospective at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Notable group exhibitions include: "Who Stole the Tee Pee?" at the National Museum of the American Indian, New York; "AlieNation" at the American Indian Community House Gallery. His work was recently shown at "IN/SIGHT 2010" at Chelsea Art Museum, New York and "The Importance of IN/VISIBILITY" at Abrazo Interno Gallery, New York, 2009. In 2002 Martinez was one of the first non-Japanese artists to be invited to exhibit at the Contemporary Artists Federation Group Show at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan. In 2000, he was a visiting professor of art at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and in 2001 he received the Native Artist in Residence Fellowship from the National Museum of the American Indian. In 2005, Martinez completed a commission for the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; a 22-foot mural called Sonoran Desert: Yaqui Home as part of "Home: Desert Peoples in the Southwest" exhibition. Martinez will be featured in a solo exhibition at Mesa Contemporary Arts in Mesa, Arizona opening September 10, 2010.
IN/SIGHT 2010 A group show of contemporary art by American Indian Artists, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY, 2010.
The Importance of IN/VISIBILITY Recent work by Native American Artists living in New York City, Abrazo Interno Gallery, New York, NY, 2009.
Native Voices: Contemporary Indigenous Art, Three Brooklyn Exhibitions, Kentler International Drawing Center, FiveMyles Gallery, Long Island University Salena and Humanities Gallery, New York, 2008.
Mario Martinez and Steven Yazzie, Berlin Gallery, Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, 2007.
Native New Yorkers, NESUD Gallery, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, 2007.
New Tribe: New York: From Tradition to Transcendence, Mario Martinez Retrospective, National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, New York City, NY, 2005.
Home: Native People in the Southwest, Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, 2005.
Indian Market Show, Lewallen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2003.
Mario Martinez: The last San Francisco paintings, Cakewalk, Phoenix, Arizona, 2003.
Contemporary Artists Federation group show, Saitama Museum of Modern Art', Saitama, Japan, 2002.
Scottsdale/Penjamo Yaqui Mural Project, Scottsdale, AZ, 1999.
Native Arts Research Fellowship, National Museum of the American Indian, NY, NY, awarded by ATLATL and the National Museum of the American Indian, 1998.