Salina Art Center

September 12, 2008 — November 16, 2008

Max-Carlos Martinez: Don’t Fence Me In:  A Tale of Two Cities

Residency: August 4 – September 26, 2008

Max-Carlos Martinez is a self-taught painter, born in New Mexico, who discovered the magical qualities of color and light before reaching kindergarten age.  Since that time, he has continually worked at transferring that magic to painted surfaces.  His family, though poor, recognized his gift and encouraged his creative pursuits, which also included an obsession with writing about the history, traditions, and day-to-day activities of his Mexican-American culture.  Even as a child, he became the repository for family members’ spoken stories, as colorful as his paints.

Vowing to never be “fenced in” by stereotypical southwestern art themes, Max-Carlos left Albequerque for New York City in 1981.  His paintings were primarily abstract or geometric until 1993, when a new creative journey was inspired by the intersection of two life-changing events: the death of his grandfather and the Latin American exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.  These experiences led his thoughts back to the richness of his cultural heritage and pushed his painting in a direction entirely new to him.  He began a portrait series that he hoped would “restore some of the life to six generations” of his family.  Five of these portraits are featured in this show.

The show also includes six new works on paper, a series that began when Max-Carlos saw photographs of Abu Ghraib.  Spiritually appalled by the images, he began thinking about past instances when he “felt that the world was totally losing it.”  In the resulting work, he explores the human capacity for inhuman action and questions the consequences of colonization, when native citizens become outsiders in their own land.  During his Salina residency, he will create work that extends his investigation of these concepts.

Max-Carlos Martinez has earned fellowships, grants, and residencies from the McColl Center for Visual Arts, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Schedule a Tour!  Enjoy Don’t Fence Me In: A Tale of Two Cities with an informative tour led by trained docents and staff. Interactive tours are age-appropriate and include hands-on activities designed to enliven the exhibition experience.

Please call in advance to schedule your tour.