Daylight, 2010
Performance drawings using colored pencils on paper

This new series of performance drawings continues my exploration into the subtle movements my body makes and my connection to my immediate environment. The works are raw and unedited — I move, I absorb, and visually translate a flow of energy.

Magical Movement, 2009-2010
Performance drawing using colored pencil on journal

You’ll Wait for Me, I’ll Wait for You, 2008
Performance and installation at ART LOT, Brooklyn, NY
Color balloons

Martinez’s work, You’ll Wait for Me, I’ll Wait for You, uses two sets of balloons, tied to the ground by a 10-foot-long string that playfully reflects the gentle wind coming off the water a block away. Blowing in tandem here and there, the piece combines a minimalist quality with a childlike sensitivity to color and movement that suggests the unity of pairings.

–Jim Osman, Artist and Curator, ART LOT, Brooklyn, NY

All I Need is You, 2008
Installation view at Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Works/performances using recycled fabrics, thread, and colored pencil on paper

This series of works/performances are influenced by my experience of running through nature especially along the ocean. I am interested in the subtlety of the movements my body makes and the connection with the horizon.

Dreaming of the Sun, 2008
Installation view at MINUS SPACE, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / Museum of Modern Art, Long Island City, NY
One-time performance using recycled fabrics

Capturing Minds, 2007
Performance and installation at 80WSE Galleries, New York University, New York, NY
Color balloons

In Capturing Minds, I invite viewers to participate by selecting colored balloons of their preference and blow them up as much as they want. Capturing Minds was originally created last fall during an informal performance with my fellow artists residents and staff at LMCC’s Workspace Residency. The idea was to make a simple gesture with an everyday object and create an experience of dialogue, interaction, change and joy.

Present (For Australia), 2007
Site-specific installation at SNO, Sydney, Australia
Zuli blue paper made in Australia

Art is Great! Life is Greater!!, 2007
Letter for Escape from New York exhibition, SNO, Sydney, Australia

Performance/Drawings, 2007
Performance/drawings using gouache on paper
This series of works/performances are about body movement influenced by my running and yoga practice. I am interested in the subtlety of the movements my body makes.

Where Soul Meets Body, 2007
Performance and site-specific installation
Orange paint on wall, orange clothing

The performance was originally part of the Open Studio event at LMCC’s Workspace Residency. I painted one of my studio walls in orange. The orange wall related to the orange clothing I wore during the opening night. My goal was to make a connection between the architecture of my studio and myself. The studio was the place where I spent nine months thinking, creating and sharing with other artists.

Crash into Me, 2007-2010
Site-specific installation at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY (2007) and at Museo de Arte de Caguas (MUAC), Caguas, Puerto Rico (2010)
Fluorescent orange and hot pink ribbons

In Crash into Me, my intention is to dynamically change the architecture of the space by using a simple material. The orange and pink ribbons are subtle, delicate and almost invisible like whispers. At the same time, they are impossible to miss because of where they are/were installed. The two columns, a basic architecture element, allow the two colored lines of ribbon to connect and become one.

Side by Side (Actions), 2007
Silver ink on fluorescent flags

Actions: walk, play, talk, run, jump, hug, kiss, touch, share, celebrate, toast, grow, cheer, sleep, eat, drink, laugh, smile, work, hold, sing, dance, read, study, create, talk, wish, dream, remember…

The End of Everything, 2007
Performance and site-specific installation at LMCC’s Workspace Residency, September 2006-June 2007

During my Workspace Residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, I began to explore the idea of how artists are in continuous experimentation, dialogue and collaboration.

For nine months, I brought what influenced me through art, the environment and my everyday into the studio and my creative process. I also incorporated objects artists and friends gave me, which transformed the studio space into a dialogue and diary.

Laughing Lovers, 2006
Site-specific installation at Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY
Carpet, paint, bean bag chairs

Laughing Lovers was made specifically for the exhibition Design/Build at Metaphor Contemporary Art. Laughing Lovers consisted of three circles – an orange circle (wall and carpet) and two bean bags, one red and one burgundy. Viewers were invited to interact and seat on the bean bags and become part of the installation.

“In her installation Rossana Martínez makes use of a finely tuned appreciation of the use of scale in interior space. Responding directly to the gallery she creates a space within it that is at once welcoming, playful, and unexpected, softening the formality that is so often associated with the exhibition of art. Martínez typically employs common and everyday materials in her site specific arrangements, and here proposes a heightened, and perhaps relaxing, aesthetic engagement with the off the rack carpet, wall paint, and colorful bean bag chairs that comprise this work. The contemplation of art offers the viewer a fleeting sense of refuge from day to day concerns, an escape from the ordinary into a world of the mind’s devising. Turning this idea on it’s head Martínez offers a refuge as art, encouraging the viewer to take their shoes off and share the experience.”

−Julian Jackson, Curator, Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY

Glow, 2006
Performance and site-specific installation at Hunter College/Times Square Galleries, NY
Fluorescent orange spray paint on wall
Edition of 1,000, fluorescent orange spray paint on white paper, 4 x 6 inches each

Glow is a hybrid project where performance and architecture are transformed into painting. To create Glow, I wore a black dress and heels. Starting in one corner of the space, I walked around the perimeter of the room holding a can of spray paint at arms length while continuously spraying paint on the wall until the can of paint was completely empty.

The visual result is an installation consisting of undulating and overlapping orange lines. The intention of the work is to question what is considered a contemporary painting or what is a painted object. As part of the project, I created an edition of 1,000 works on paper consisting of fluorescent orange spray paint on white paper. The edition was stacked in the center of the space and made available free of charge to all visitors.

Drawing for the Home (for Kutztown), 2004
Site-specific installation at New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
Blue and green paint on columns
Edition of 24, blue and green thread on paper, 4.5 x 3 inches each

Drawing for the Home (for Kutztown) was inspired by the beautiful landscape colors I saw in my first visit to Kutztown in the summer of 2004. By painting the columns, I wanted to make the viewer aware of overlooked attributes of the gallery’s space, as well as, an active part of the work by moving through the space.