Collection: Lilian Martinez

Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago, IL) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends imagery from classical architecture, pop culture, and imagined worlds to create vibrant portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Her flat, bold style draws from art historical traditions while re-centering brown bodies, offering a recontextualization of both subject and artist. Martinez’s figures, often engaged in scenes of everyday leisure, exist within colorful, atmospheric spaces that balance nostalgic specificity with a sense of boundlessness.

Martinez holds a BFA in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives and works in Michigan. In addition to her studio practice, she operates BFGF, a lifestyle brand focused on accessible, functional art objects. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Green Family Art Foundation (Dallas, TX), Taubman Museum of Art (Roanoke, VA), The Naughton Gallery (Belfast, Ireland), Gallery Commune (Tokyo, Japan), Taymour Grahne Projects (London, UK), and OCHI (Sun Valley, ID, and Los Angeles, CA).

Her work has been featured in Frieze, Artforum, The New York Times, The Cut, Architectural Digest, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, apartamento, Juxtapoz, Los Angeles Magazine, Artsy, LALA Magazine, Nationale, Art Practical, and AUTRE. She is represented by OCHI.