Born near an atomic blast crater in the New Mexico desert, Gabriel Martinez is an artist, writer, and performer living and working in Houston. He is the founding director of Alabama Song, an experimental sound and art space for which he received the Robert Rauschenberg SEED Grant. His art explores relationships produced by the built environment and the body’s experience of history. He graduated with an M.F.A. from Columbia University and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program before moving to Houston as a Museum of Fine Arts Core Fellow and artist-in-residence at Project Row Houses.

Martinez’s work has been exhibited at various institutions and galleries including the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston TX, Artpace San Antonio, and the Wallach Gallery in New York City. He has performed at institutions such as Artist’s Space, Menil Collection, the Chinati Foundation, and the Moody Center for the Arts. In addition to his extensive visual and performing background, Martinez has received several grants, fellowships, and artist residencies. He was a 2022 Robert and Stephanie Olmsted Fellow at MacDowell, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.