We are thrilled to announce that HESSE FLATOW now respresents Amanda Martínez!
Repetition plays significantly within Martínez’s works, whose tessellated patterns embrace a slowness both in process and reception. Though an attention to detail and uniformity across her surfaces may signal a mechanical means of production, Martínez in fact constructs her works entirely by hand. Inventing her own language of geometric abstraction, fashioning stencils or “profiles” of undulating shapes as distinct units of measurement, she maps out and carves her sculptures into discrete building blocks with infinite possible configurations. By transforming found materials such as foam, wood, and plaster using natural pigments, she reimagines elements commonly associated with the built environment into earthy, topographical terrains, equipped with a tectonic sense of movement.
Martínez’s subtractive modeling in her carved pieces is counterbalanced by the additive assemblage of her woven works. Straddling between ornament and implement, these straw- and wool-laced structures not only assert their object-like status, but also analogize for Martínez, her efforts to build a network of interconnectivity. As she attunes to her forms and materials with a steady, meditative intensity, her ritualized process becomes one of healing and self-care.