Ochi Projects is pleased to present Bart, Beethoven, Wifi, Lilian Martinez’ third solo exhibition with the gallery.

Lilian Martinez’ work blends representation and iconographies of past with present and imaged future, combining classical architectural elements with contemporary pop cultural references to create the settings for her portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Her flat, bold style recalls iconic predecessors like Matisse, while her impetus to center brown bodies that have historically been essentialized, if not omitted altogether, from these sorts of historical artworks recontextualizes the roles of the artist and subject at once.

Martinez’ newest body of work is both more commanding in scale, as well as increasingly focused on the figures she portrays. The figures are usually engaged in everyday leisure activities, and Martinez’ work indulges color and mood, all while maintaining a charming nonchalance. Even in the works bold simplicity, a matrix of historical and cultural signifiers exposes a boundlessness, both in connection through nostalgic specificity and limitlessness in the lack thereof. Towering above the line of sight, Lilian Martinez’ women portrayed welcome the viewer with open arms into a dreamscape of her making.

Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago, IL) lives and works between Yucca Valley and Los Angeles, CA. She earned a BFA in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of BFGF, an art brand working with digitally printed and woven versions of her artwork. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, most recently with Ochi Projects, Los Angeles The Naughton Gallery, Belfast, Ireland and Commune, Tokyo, Japan.