Pow Martinez

Pow Martinez’ paintings juxtaposes his grotesque subject matter with indelibly beautiful surfaces and a wide-ranging daring use of colour. Mutants, monsters, demons, deviants, and freaks lurch, sit, and appear to transform amidst weirdly lit landscapes, disintegrating urban scenarios, or emerge from a painterly graffito mess. But, as his more abstracted works insist, Martinez’ ability to render intriguing relationships between forms and surfaces ensure his works are endlessly compelling—an experience akin to a beautiful nightmare. Martinez is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards for his exhibition 1 Billion Years at West Gallery, Philippines. He exhibits internationally and has worked with different media, including sound. His recent exhibitions include City Prince/sses (2019) at Palais de Tokyo in Paris; 50 Years in Hollywood (2019) at Pinto Art Museum in New York; WASAK! Reloaded (2016) in Arndt, Singapore; and WASAK! (2016) in Arndt, Berlin. Martinez has also held a number of solo shows in major galleries in Manila, the most recent of which is Sustainable Anxiety (2020) in SILVERLENS. Early in 2018, Martinez had his first solo exhibition in Indonesia. Titled Aesthetic Police, the exhibition is an outcome of his month-long residency program at OPQRStudio in Bandung.