HomeArtArtists › Artist Spotlight on Monica Aissa Martinez
 
 
 

MoniaAissaMartinez

Meet the talented local artist, Monica Aissa Martinez who is creating delicate and intricate paintings and drawings focusing on the human body, technology as well as the individual spirit.

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Her interest lies within exploring how the body works and how technology affects us as a society. These are reoccurring themes seen throughout her work although her subjects vary from insects, animals, and humans. She has said her current inspiration is master artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci and her artwork is a labor of love with some pieces taking up to a year to complete.

MAMartinezCat

An excellent example of this is can be seen in her painting “Vital Commotion”. The artwork depicts various organs found in the human body, how they are connect, work, and/or disconnect. The color palette is muted except for the central image of the heart. While the forms appear to be slightly abstracted with the internal organs seeming to be effortlessly floating, almost organic, on the canvas. Also her large-scale paintings of the human body are fantastic such as “Woman Front Body”  and "Male Torso" that are truly beautiful studies of the human body. Martinez uses casein and egg tempera rather than traditional harsh chemicals found in oils and acrylics. She uses the casein as underpainting and the egg tempera as the surface color. Materials and process that should be used more often but it is much more time consuming and difficult.

MaleTorsoMAMartinez

Monica Aissa Martinez was traditionally trained in art, receiving her BA in Metals and Ceramics from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts from New Mexico State University, with emphasis in Drawing and Printmaking. She has exhibited his artwork extensively across the country and has had her artwork featured in numerous publications including Phoenix New Times, Java Magazine, LocalRevibe, Arizona Republic and most recently in the Huffington Post.

Stateoftheart

She was recently selected as one of the 102 national artists asked to participate in the exciting "State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now," a major exhibition at the prestigious Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. This exhibition opened in September 2014 and it will remain on view through January 19, 2015. Also who work is currently on view at the I.D.E.A. Museum in Mesa in the fun and engaging exhibition “Jeepers Creepers : Bugs” on view until January 25, 2015. Want to learn more about Monica Aissa Martinez and her artwork, simply visit: http://monicaaissamartinez.com/. Images courtesy of artist Monica Aissa Martinez.