You Can Sing Me Anything, 2011
Installation at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Green ribbon
Photos: Lance Cash

You Can Sing Me Anything was part of a three person exhibition entitled The Weight of Jupiter in Wellington, NZ. The exhibition, curated by Erica Van Zon, included work by Lisa Benson and Zoe Rapley.

For the installation, I wanted to create a hill of green with the simplest materials. The idea was to convey my experience visiting New Zealand in 2007. During my visit, I made a note about how the landscape, shapes and colors reminded me of the Caribbean — where I grew up. But at the same time, I noticed how different the types of trees, hills and green hues are found in New Zealand to those found in the Caribbean. This connection to me represented the perfect balance of nature.

Body Geometry, 2011
Momentary performances
Blue and hot pink fabric, orange clothing

Your Eyes Give Me Something to Dream is an ongoing series of multiples made out of recycled newspaper and words. The words are taken from tags I frequently use in the blog, art & life.  Everyone is invited to take pencils by making a small donation. The money collected is donated to an organization related to the environment and protection of trees.

Daylight, 2010
Performance drawings using colored pencils on paper
14 x 17 inches; 11 x 14 inches; 9 x 12 inches

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.

Crash into Me, 2007-2011
Site-specific installation at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY (2007)
Museo de Arte de Caguas (MUAC), Caguas, Puerto Rico (2010)
Pacific Northwest College of Art, Feldman Gallery, Portland, OR (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.

Rossana Martinez’s piece is about harnessing the implied energy of separate architectural elements like two walls or columns so we used it to illustrate the opposing structural corners of the room. I love that piece, its a lot like love or a strong relationship… it’s about coming together in a very honest way that allows for integrity on both sides.

-ArC: Art & Concept interview with Jeff Jahn, curator of M5, Feldman Gallery, Portland, OR, 2010.

two merges art and fashion, fabric and thread, color and form. It is about the connection of two people.

I have been always interested in the idea of combining art and fashion. I grew up surrounded by fabric while helping out at my mother’s clothing store. After working on Capturing Minds, an installation/performance where I invited viewers to participate by selecting colored balloons of their preference, I began to “play” in the studio with the idea of making a series of “drawings” that people could have and wear. In two I use my sewing machine as an spontaneous tool to “draw” a single line of thread across a shirt. Each shirt is unique, using the color selected by each person. My goal is to make work that is affordable to all.

Capturing Minds, 2007-2010
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.

Magical Movement, 2009-2011
Performance/running log using colored pencils on sketchbook

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 on paper/performances with blue reused fabric, blue thread, and colored pencils

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

Present, 2007-2010

Site-specific installation at SNO, Sydney, Australia, 2007
The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010
Zuli blue paper made in 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.

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.

Face to Face, 2006
Fluorescent orange and hot pink spray paint on folded archival paper

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.

On the way out of the show, a jolt of adrenalin is provided by the estimable Rossana Martinez, who, in a performance just prior to the show’s opening, witnessed by a lucky few, ran a can of orange spray paint at arm’s length around the wall of her allotted space, forming a two-foot-high band of roughly parallel lines like a jittery jetstream, fuzzy and electric, spreading out oddly in the corners. The result is Glow. Was it a Happening? An Action? A late-mannerist tag? Streaked with the same orange, a double stack of 4-by-6-inch cards, in an “edition” of 1,000 but each apparently unique, sits in the middle of the floor. Visitors are invited to take one. I confess, I took two — I just couldn’t decide!

-Stephen Maine. “Painting Presentation.” Artnet Magazine, NYC, April 7, 2006.

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.