UCF Alum and Fulbright scholar Mär Martinez exhibition in Maitland, FL
Contemporary painter Mär Martinez, a Fulbright scholar and UCF alum, presents her first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” at the Art & History Museums of Maitland (A&H) in Maitland, Florida. The show features works developed during her 2024–25 Fulbright research in Istanbul and builds on ideas from her 2021–2023 Studio Artist Residency at A&H. Inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices, Martinez explores themes of urban life, surveillance, and cultural memory, using imagery from nighttime walks through Istanbul—fences, checkpoints, and barbed wire—combined with historic textile patterns. Her Cuban and Arab heritage and family’s experience of displacement inform her work, with weaving serving as a metaphor for endurance and resistance. The opening night is free to the public, with live music, food, and a cash bar.
