'For me, it's about speed, really. That's what gets me the most excited, something that is without a lot of thought'. —Eddie Martinez
Bold, rapidly executed and expressive, Eddie Martinez’s work pushes artistic boundaries, blending the genres of street and graffiti art and drawing influence from Abstract Expressionism resulting in an entirely unique amalgamation. Dissected horizontally by a think black line, Untitled from 2011 is divided into two frieze-like halves. Martinez’ style pays homage to artist’s such as Willem De Kooning through the heavily abstracted face in the upper right corner and through the gestural strokes of instinctual colour. The harsh black outlining in combination with the vibrant primary colours and spray-painted accents serve to ground the work with a strong basis in Graffiti art.
'I’m most interested in not pigeonholing anything. I don’t want to make any rules. I’m the kind of painter I am, and I’m influenced by what I’m influenced by, so I’m never going to make a solid black square and call it abstraction. It’s what I think is abstraction.'
—Eddie Martinez
Eddie Martinez has been the subject of institutional solo shows at museums including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York and is included in public collections such as the Saatchi Collection, The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, and the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Martinez’s most recent solo exhibition, Pigeon Sweat at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles was shown from 15 January – 26 February 2022.