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Amanda Martínez (born 1988, Greenville, SC) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 2010 where she studied sculpture. Martínez recently opened her solo exhibition “querencia” at Hesse Flatow in New York, NY in 2022 and of late has exhibited her work at The Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair with Harlan & Weaver Press based in New York, NY, CADAN Yurakucho with Koki Arts in Tokyo, Japan and ArtsLibris fair in Barcelona, Spain. In 2020 she completed a public art commission at 125 Maiden Lane in New York City, an edition of cast sculptures for Maison Trouvee in Paris as well as significant residential projects. In 2019 Martínez had a solo exhibition at Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Nagoya, Japan as part of Aichi Triennale 2019, selected by Pedro Reyes and with a published catalogue edited by journalist Tsuda Daisuke. Her work has also been shown with David Shelton Gallery in Houston, TX, Egg Collective in New York, NY, Underdonk in Brooklyn, NY, Vacation in New York, NY, Spring/Break in New York, NY, Garis & Hahn in Los Angeles, CA, New Art Dealers Alliance fair in New York, NY, Redline Contemporary Art Center in Denver, CO and elsewhere. In 2021 Martínez lectured as a visiting artist at School of Visual Arts in New York's sculpture foundations program and contributed “Tamales as an open system” to the publication “You Stir the Pot: Recipes for Change” organized by Victoria Manganiello with support from Taiwan Craft Research Institute. In 2020 she lectured as a visiting artist at George Washington University's MFA program and had work enter the Francis J. Greenberger public collection. In 2019 Martínez curated “Object of Desire” at Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York, an artist-run cooperative gallery, and lectured as a visiting artist at Pratt Institute's foundations program. She has been awarded past residencies in Wassaic, NY, Kansas City, MO by the Charlotte Street Foundation and Truth or Consequences, NM. Recent press for Martínez's work includes Surface Magazine, Architectural Digest, Interior Design Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times and other outlets.

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As a sculptor I am interested in exploring our relationship with the built environment, using a pluralistic approach to challenge notions of boundaries and binaries. I utilize a mixture of natural and artificial materials with a capacity for change or transformation that are typically used for utilitarian purposes. I manipulate these materials with a mixture of purchased and handmade tools as well as approaches historically associated with both sculpture and craft, in order to question their set hierarchies and how they relate to our perception of place, value and class. My carvings start with a focused rhythm and grow through a self-determined, generative accumulation, using a visual language that is both personal and formal; distinctly informed by my heritage and neurotype, as well as my experience of each. They recall architecture, stelae and artifacts from the past while simultaneously looking ahead to an unknown future; employing repetition to emphasize the labor and continuous presence of the hand.

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