No. 635: Leslie Martinez, Alexis Smith

Episode No. 635 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Leslie Martinez and curator Anthony Graham.

MoMA PS1 in Queens is presenting “Leslie Martinez: The Fault of Formation,” through April 8. The exhibition features paintings built with paint, folds, pools, and collaged materials such as rags and dried acrylics. Martinez’s way of making paintings both mines the history of abstraction, but also a no-waste approach informed by methodologies of rasquachismo, a term coined by scholar Tomás Ybarra-Fausto to describe a Chicano “attitude rooted in resourcefulness yet mindful of stance and style.” The show was curated by Elena Ketelsen González.

Martinez was previously featured in a solo show at the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston. Their work is in the collection of museums such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The Speed Art Museum in Louisville is showing Martinez’s work in “Current Speed: Angel Otero/Leslie Martinez” through March 24. The exhibition features works by the two artists that are new to the Speed’s collection. The presentation was organized by Tyler Blackwell.

On the second segment, a re-presentation of curator Anthony Graham on the Alexis Smith retrospective he organized at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2022. Smith died earlier this week. She was 74. For images, see Episode No. 568.

Instagram: Leslie Martinez, Anthony Graham, Tyler Green.

Air date: January 4, 2024.

Leslie Martinez, Blazing Bounty, 2023.

Leslie Martinez, Through the Blows, 2017.

Leslie Martinez. Out of the Gap Where Darkness Echos, Mustangs Took Off Running. 2023.

Leslie Martinez. The Decorum of this Body. 2023.

Leslie Martinez. The Foam of a Violent Shake (Don’t Tread on Me). 2023.

Leslie Martinez. The Reconstitution of Rejected and Refracted Voids. 2023.

Leslie Martinez. Untitled. 2021.

Leslie Martinez. Your Life Became a Sundial When Your Body Dropped the Earth. 2021.

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