The image of artist Christina Martin’s face (MFA ‘22, Print Media at PNCA) becomes abstract under layers of ink in her work, GL!TCH B!TCH (2021).
Martin’s triptych – three pieces meant to be displayed collectively – was recently selected by the International Print Center New York (IPCNY) for the exhibit Unfinished: New Prints 2022/Winter, featuring works by 36 contemporary artists from the United States and abroad.
“I heard about it and immediately thought, ‘I will be applying,’” Martin said. Winning artists have the opportunity to receive money to develop their artwork, a studio visit by a working artist, and other professional development. Importantly, it brings widespread attention to an emerging artist like the 25-year-old Martin.
“You never know who is going to be set up beside you or who will attend,” Martin said.
Her work shows three 11” x 15” inch prints, all in a row, framed in raw wood. The ink refuses to stay on the paper – or even within the frame. Scrawled flower shapes float on the colorful center print and drift out on the neighboring frames, escaping their confines.
“I don’t think I could ever separate them now,” Martin said. “They belong together.” Martin made the work during a summer residency at Anderson Ranch in Colorado in 2021, between her semesters as a graduate student in the print media Master of Fine Arts program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. The triptych plays on the idea of giving someone everything but then taking it away, she said.
Before the fall semester wrapped up, Martin packed and shipped the triptych to New York from her studio within the 511 Building at PNCA in Portland. The work was first displayed for a student show called Dust to Dust -- What Remains in one of the student-run galleries at PNCA. Martin has also exhibited at Austin City Hall in her home state, Texas.
Martin is a Mexican-American, Queer, Performative, Printmaker who works challenges traditional printmaking as well as traditional ideas. Their material exploration transforms the print past paper, introducing and interlacing new forms of media with various printmaking techniques. Martin said she hopes her work elicits excitement, discomfort, and discovery. Their work is rooted within their own intersectional identity including their feminine, queer, and cultural expressions. “My work evokes space for self-exploration, self-love, and pleasure,” she said.
The exhibit at the IPCNY is curated by Queer.Archive.Work, Inc., a nonprofit based in Providence, R.I. that supports artists with free, open access to resources for experimental publishing, with a special focus on queer practices.
Unfinished: New Prints 2022/Winter runs through March 26, 2022, at the International Print Center New York, 508 West 26th Street 5A, New York, N.Y. 10001.
More information, including a virtual tour of Unfinished, can be found via the link below.