Now, You Know... Moyosore Martins | Mitochondria Gallery by Traffic Creative Management

Now, You Know...

Móyòsóré Martins

Now, You Know...

Móyòsóré Martins Phone Number: +1 832 271 0193

Email: info@mitochondriagallery.com https://mitochondriagallery.com

MÓYÒSÓRÉ MARTINS (B. 1986)

Móyòsóré Martins, a self-taught mixed-media artist, uses his art to express his innately curious and spiritual nature. Raised in Lagos, Nigeria by a Brazilian father and a Nigerian mother from Ekiti state, Martins began using a paintbrush and pencil at a young age. He combines his traditional Yoruba cultural roots with a contemporary vision to create artwork that blends figurative, abstract, and narrative elements drawn from his unique life experience, including his journey from Nigeria to his Bronx studio. Martins’s deeply symbolic artwork frequently features cultural and personal iconography, reflecting his life experience. His paintings are richly textured and use bold brushstrokes, thick oil paint, drawings, scribbles, collaged materials, and text. The vibrant, heavily layered canvases often include spiritual elements and wishes manifested and fulfilled. In addition to painting, Martins also creates three-dimensional art through using found objects and mixed media. As Martins describes:

My artwork is intentionally raw. I like to use a lot of different materials and have rough-cut edges on the canvas. The paintings are textured with scratches, scribbles, and mud-like paint, as well as clay, liquid plastic, oil sticks, chunky layers of oil paint. I layer the background and then deconstruct them, which gives the feeling of wear and tear on the canvas. No painting is alike as each has symbolic patterns and encrypted messages hidden within it. I want to merge the vision with the given and the new world that I live in now. The word “Why?” is seen in a lot of the work because it leaves you asking the same question. Forbidden by his father to create or study art, Martins spent his college years in Ghana and the Ivory Coast studying computer science. He immigrated to New York City in 2015 to pursue his artistic ambitions. Martins’ artwork has been exhibited at the Nassau County Museum (Roslyn, NY), TrafficArts (New York, NY), Long-Sharp Gallery (Indiannapolis, IN), Robert Fontaine Gallery (Miami), Path Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Galerie Tanit (Beirut), and Crossing Art (New York, NY).

Móyòsóré Martins Bronx Studio, NY 2023 4

EXHIBITIONS Upcoming: 2024 Gallery T | Paris, France | April 2-31 2024 Mitochondria Gallery | Houston, TX | January 15 2023 Scope Miami | Mitochondria Gallery | December 5-10 Art Miami | Robert Fontaine Gallery | December 8-10 Past: 2023 Art Shenzhen | Crossing Art | Shenzhen, China 2023 Butter | Indiannapolis, ID 2023 Robert Fontaine Gallery | Portraits in Focus | Group Show | Miami, FL 2023 Robert Fontaine Gallery | Intimate | Group Show | Miami, FL 2023 Solo Exhibition | Crossing Art | The Artist Journey | New York, NY 2023 Beijing Contemporary Art Fair | Crossing Art 2022 Beverly Hills Art Exchange | Group Show | San Francisco, CA 2022 Art Miami | Long-Sharp Gallery | Miami, FL 2022 Solo Exhibition: Long-Sharp Gallery | Indiannapolis, ID 2022 Butter | Indiannapolis, ID 2021 Nassau County Museum, Songs Without Words: The Art of Music | Roslyn, NY 2021 Path Gallery | Los Angeles, CA 2021 Long-Sharp Gallery | Conrad Indianapolis | Featured Artist | Indiannapolis, ID 2021 TrafficArts | New York, NY 2019 Dacia Gallery, Holiday Group Exhibition | New York, NY 2018 Heath Gallery | New York, NY 2017 Grady Alexis Gallery | Art United Presents: Radical Resistance to Xenophobia | New York, NY PUBLICATIONS Whitehot Magazine, The Vibrant Paintings of Moyosore Martins, 2023 Forbes, Móyòsóré Martins Solo Show, June 2023 Flaunt, Móyòsóré Martins: The Artist Journey, June 2023 Artnet News-Buyers Guide Spotlight, 2023 Artnet News, Art Collectors, 2023 Forbes, Sotheby’s Contemporary Discoveries, 2023 NY Magazine/Curbed, 2022 Pattern Magazine, 2022 Considering Art Podcast, 2022 Yahoo News, 2022 WRTV, 2022 Forbes 2021 Portray Magazine 2021 Office Magazine 2021 Art Daily 2021 Móyòsóré Martins Shows Up to Paint, Podcast with Asher Gottesman, 2021 Forbes, 2019 Asiri Magazine, 2017 Instagram: @moysoremartins1910 5

Parallel 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, charcoal and canvas 69 x 70 in. (172.50 x 175 cm)

Móyòsóré Martins bridges abstract, figurative, and iconographic symbolism. He expresses the beauty in the figure and the depth of its subject; he obsesses with a cartoon- like character that imbues his personal iconography and that has a deep symbolic meaning. His approach is narrative and realistic in the early works, returning to his childhood memories. The African statue is increasingly present and spiritually meaningful in his work. He is fascinated with contemporary plastic toy statues and collectibles from artists like Kaws, representing everything different in juxtaposition to the traditional Yaruba figures. A seminal work, “Watchman,” resonates; the painting is a study of the Yaruba figure and is interpreted by Martins as the man taking on his destiny, with a nod to his experience while employed as a night watchman in the Bronx—a lasting impression.

Martins expresses the emotion of the characters he deftly paints, the backgrounds layered, manipulated, scratched, and then infused with text. He places himself in the canvas, in the artwork, both in spirit and name, even his birthdate. He scribbles words, mathematical formulas, mantras, and prayers. He visually expresses his internal conversation, which shifts as his world does—as a visual biography. He resists being put in a box. His unique use of materials and story is the cord that ties his work together.

Móyòsóré Martins exhalts the tradition of the Abstract Expressionist painters—the beginning. Figurative and conceptualist elements then take the stage. Hatching, hard-handed distress brings the work together in harmony and depth—Móyòsóré’s own total. — Asher Edelman

Follow The Light You Seek 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, graphite on canvas 102.5 x 70 in. (256.25 x 175 cm) 9

In Alignment 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, graphite on canvas 77 x 70 in. (192.50 x 175 cm)

Foreseeing 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, charcoal on canvas 75 x 70 in. (287.5 x 175 cm) 12

Idé (bondage) 2023 Mixed media on concrete 13 x 6 x 6 in. (32.5 x 15 x 15 cm) 13

Vessel I 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigment, graphite, and glaze on clay 13 x 11 in. (32.5 x 27.5 cm)

Vessel II 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigment, graphite, and glaze on clay 8 x 7 in. (32 x 150 cm) Vessel III and IV Oil, oil stick, pigment, graphite, and glaze on clay 6 x 5 in. (15 x 12.5 cm) 16

A Little Bit of Hubris 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, charcoal and canvas 72 x 60 in. (180 x 250 cm) Unstretched 17

“The one who cheers and claps for everyone but never gets anything back.” —MM

Aletewo (The Cheerer)2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, graphite on canvas 72 x 64.5 in. (180 x 150 cm) Unstretched 70 x 62 in. (175 x 155 cm) Stretched 18

Tablets Set III (1,2,3,4, 5) 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, charcoal, and canvas 14 x 11 in. (35 x 27.5 cm) 19

Elebi (Hunger) 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigments, charcoal and canvas Diptych 60 x 48 in. (150 x 120 cm) each 60 x 96 in. (150 x 240 cm)

“Seeing is believing. As an artist I have so many people who look to me. Not many are privileged to the life I have. Even back home I was always privileged. I never took that for granted. I saw poverty. People are really suffering. I am very grateful. My achievements are for us all. Everyone is watching me. Sometimes it feels like a lot. Being an artist plays the added expectation for success, for fulfilling the path, for taking the journey.”

— Moyosore Martins

Moyosore Martins Tablet Triptych, 2023 Oil paint, oil stick, pigment, pastel, and acrylic on canvas, mounted on board (3) 24 x 18 in. (60 x 45 cm) Total size: 24 x 54 in. (60 x 135 cm)

$15,000

Tablet (Triptych) 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigment, and graphite on canvas mounted on board 24 x 18 in. (60 x 45 cm) each Total size 24 x 54 in. (60 x 135 cm)

Tablet Set II, 2023 (1 and 2) Oil paint, oil stick, pigment, pastel, and acrylic on canvas, mounted on board (2) 24 x 18 in. (60 x 45 cm)

Protection, Artifact 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigment, graphite, on canvas 72 x 60 in. (180 x 150 cm)

More Than Me 2023 Oil, oil sticks, pigments and graphite on canvas 72 x 60 in. (180 x 150 cm) 30

Dues Dues 2023 Mixed media collage, oil, acrylic and graphite on cardboard 48 x 72 in. (120 x 180 cm)

Presence of Ego 2023 Oil, oil stick, pigment, ink, graphite on canvas Two panels of 108 x 72 in. (270 x 180 cm) Total size 108 x 144 in. (270 x 360 cm) *Unstretched 35