Martin has adorned walls, sneakers and textiles with her art,
collaborating with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, the NYC Ballet, Nike and
Tiffany
The art of Shantell Martin has, for more than a decade, captivated
audiences around the world with its intuitive energy, skill and bravura.
Using a highly personalized language of characters, faces, creatures and
messages and often rendering her large-scale black and white drawings
live in front of an audience, Martin invites viewers to actively engage
in her creative process. Using drawing as a physical
stream-of-consciousness, her work is characterized by a unique freedom,
expressed through the possibilities of her chosen canvas--whether that
be a piece of paper or a textile, a sculptural surface, a wall or a
screen.
Bridging the fine art and commercial worlds since her beginnings making
live performance drawings in the mega clubs of Tokyo, Martin navigates
different creative worlds to interrogate and play with the roles of
artist and viewer in a uniquely charming, accessible style.
This monograph charts, for the first time, the career of this prolific
and popular artist, including early pieces such as "Dear Grandmother" (a
2003 collaboration between the artist and her grandmother on over 70
pieces of embroidery), large-scale murals and commissions and
collaborations with museums, technical institutes, musicians and fashion
brands.
London-born, New York-based artist Shantell Martin (born 1980) is
best known for her signature black-and-white drawings. She has had solo
shows at 92Y Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan
Arts, New York. Martin has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Max
Mara and Tiffany & Co., as well as with the New York City Ballet and
Kendrick Lamar.
