Guadalupe Martinez

Guadalupe Martinez’ work focuses on the relationship between performance art, space, and materiality. Growing up in Buenos Aires, her practice was shaped by the city’s landscape and it’s historical and social conditions, which combined with a particular sense of political aesthetics.

As an immigrant in Canada, Martinez found that these particularities manifest themselves through an attentive sensitivity to the spatial and political matters of her surroundings. She uses performance art and three-dimensionality to create works that mnemonically activate spaces and found objects, animating their meanings into new structures of signification and resistance. Her practice recurrently engages with local histories of colonization, immigration, and gentrification while considering histories of feminist movements, performance, video, and activist art. Pedagogy, embodiment, and collaboration are foundational elements in the healing ethos of Martinez’ practice.

Martinez teaches performance art at UBC and Emily Carr University in Vancouver. Her work has been shown across Canada, USA, Italy, Argentina, and Mexico.