Eddie Martinez

Eddie Martinez's works have been acquired by significant institutions worldwide, reflecting his growing importance in contemporary painting. The Saatchi Collection in London holds several major paintings from his early career that demonstrate his evolution from street art influences to a more complex painterly language. At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, visitors can experience works that showcase his distinctive fusion of abstraction and figuration. The Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles maintains an important collection of his large-scale paintings that highlight his dynamic compositional approach. Other notable collections include the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, and the Hort Family Collection. Martinez's works also feature in important private collections including those of Susan and Michael Hort, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and Eugenio López Alonso, whose Jumex Collection contains significant examples of Martinez's large-scale paintings from multiple periods of his career.

Eddie Martinez's approach to art-making combines raw physicality with intuitive decision-making in a process that embraces both careful planning and spontaneous execution. Working from his spacious Brooklyn studio, Martinez develops his paintings through a layered, accumulative method that often begins with drawing—a foundational aspect of his practice. He maintains extensive sketchbooks filled with drawings that serve as source material and preparatory studies for his larger works, though the transition from drawing to painting typically involves significant reinvention rather than direct transcription.

Martinez's painting process is notably physical and material-intensive. He builds up dense, tactile surfaces through multiple layers of oil, acrylic, and spray paint, often incorporating collaged elements including paper, canvas scraps, baby wipes used for cleaning brushes, and found objects. This hybrid approach allows him to create works that combine the gestural freedom of abstract expressionism with the deliberate mark-making of drawing. Martinez frequently works on multiple canvases simultaneously, moving between them to maintain freshness and energy in his execution. He embraces a balance between control and chance, often making bold compositional decisions that require scraping down, overpainting, or radically reconfiguring a work in progress.

What distinguishes Martinez's studio practice is his fusion of traditional painting techniques with methods derived from street art and contemporary visual culture. He might use high-end oil paints alongside commercial spray paint and markers, applying paint with both fine brushes and household implements like mops or brooms to achieve varied textures and marks. This democratic approach to materials reflects his interest in bridging high and low cultural references, creating works that feel simultaneously refined and raw.

Documentation of Eddie Martinez's body of work is evolving as his career continues to develop. While no comprehensive catalogue raisonné has been published to date, several significant publications provide important documentation of his artistic evolution. The most extensive catalog is "Eddie Martinez: Drawings," published by Mitchell-Innes & Nash in 2017, which chronicles his works on paper with essays by curator Glenn O'Brien and gallerist Mitchell Algus. This publication focuses specifically on his drawing practice, which serves as the foundation for his broader artistic output.

Eddie Martinez's contribution to contemporary art is characterized by his revitalization of painting through a distinctive synthesis of traditional techniques and contemporary visual language. By successfully bridging street art aesthetics with art historical awareness, Martinez has helped expand the possibilities of contemporary painting, demonstrating how classical approaches to the medium can be reinvigorated through engagement with urban visual culture and unconventional materials.