Adolfo Martinez
Adolfo Martinez earned his BFA from Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas, and also studied at the Kansas City Art Institute. He has exhibited regularly in Kansas City at the Mattie Rhodes Art Center and the Late Show, as well as at the Writer’s Place, H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, Blue Gallery, and the Bohemian Gallery. Martinez is best known for his “sofa-size” paintings of living room sofas incorporating Mexican cultural motifs, two of which reside in the collection of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. “I love them as a series,” said Awards Advisor and Nerman Museum Director Bruce Hartman. “He’s endowed each with a very distinctive personality. There’s great wit to them, and they’re beautifully realized.” As exemplified in the ongoing sofa series, as well as recent works such as Pancho Villa Tortilla Apparition and What Would Zapata Do?, Martinez habitually applies humor and an appreciation for pop culture to an investigation of personal and cultural identity.
