Guadalupe Martinez
Guadalupe Martínez (born 1980, Argentina) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Through her multifaceted work, Martinez aims to create spaces of connection, care, discovery, and future dreaming, reflecting deeply on art, pedagogy, and place.{{Cite web |title=Guadalupe Martinez |url=https://ahva.ubc.ca/profile/guadalupe-martinez/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory |language=en-US}}
Early life and education
Martínez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte (IUNA) in Buenos Aires, 2008, majoring in printmaking. In 2014, she completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver.
Artistic practice
Martínez's artistic practice explores the poetic and political relationships between the body, memory, and place. Through research-based processes, she creates installations and performances that uncover hidden narratives foundational to individual and collective healing.{{Cite web |title=Guadalupe Martinez |url=https://belkin.ubc.ca/person/guadalupe-martinez/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery |language=en-CA}}
Her work examines the intersections of embodiment, ritual, pedagogy, and healing. She often engages in site-specific performances and installations that address the invisibility of certain narratives and their historical relation to time and place.{{Cite web |title=Martínez, Guadalupe- Archivo |url=https://www.surgalleryvirtual.ca/martinezguadalupe-archivo |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Sur Virtual Platform}}
Career
Martínez has participated in various residencies, including:
● The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2010){{Cite web |title=2011 Guadalupe Martinez {{!}} |url=https://livebiennale.ca/2011-guadalupe-martinez/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |language=en-US}}
● Elsewhere Artist Residency and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina (2012){{Cite web |title=Guadalupe Martinez |url=https://www.elsewheremuseum.org/people/guadalupe-martinez |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Elsewhere Living Museum and Artist Residency |language=en-US}}
● Hammock Residency in Vancouver{{Cite web |last=Nagtegaal |first=Heidi |title=Guadalupe Martinez - September To October 2010 |url=https://hammockresidency.org/archive/guadalupe-martinez-september-to-october-2010/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Hammock Residency |language=en-US}}
● Strathcona Art Gallery in Vancouver{{Cite web |title=Exhibitions {{!}} grunt gallery |url=https://grunt.ca/exhibitions/page/9/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=grunt.ca}}
Her ongoing project, CUERPO collective-body, functions as a site and methodology to explore embodied research and somatic activism, fostering a fluid group of emerging artists and mentors sharing knowledge, movement, and touch.{{Cite web |title=Performance by Guadalupe Martinez |url=https://www.griffinartprojects.ca/digital-archive-pages/performance-by-guadalupe-martinez |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Griffin Art Projects |language=en-US}}
Notable exhibitions
● Sensorial Visualities: Embodying Together and Alone (2023) at Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, BC. This project involved movement workshops, listening experiments, and collaborative performances aimed at challenging traditional pedagogical frameworks.{{Cite web |title=Embodying the Edge Effect Together and Alone: a reflection on Guadalupe Martinez: Sensorial Visualities |url=https://www.sfu.ca/galleries/sfu-galleries-blog/blog-2023/Reflection_TeresaDonck-Matlock_GuadalupeMartinez_SensorialVisualities.html |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.sfu.ca}}
● Re/search Re/surgence (2020) at Or Gallery, Vancouver, BC. This collaborative exhibition was completed with artist Olivia Whetung, featuring the CUERPO Collective's exploration of somatic and spiritual activism through workshops and performances.{{Cite web |title=Martínez, Guadalupe- Archivo |url=https://www.surgalleryvirtual.ca/martinezguadalupe-archivo |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Sur Virtual Platform}}
● CUERPO (2019) at Or Gallery, Vancouver, BC. This exhibition included a series of workshops and performances focusing on radical presence and embodied research.
● Spill: Response (2019) at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC.{{Cite web |title=Spill: Response |url=https://belkin.ubc.ca/events/spill-response/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery |language=en-CA}}
● Love, Loss, and Land (2022) at Open Space, Victoria, BC.{{Cite web |title=For Love, Loss & Land |url=https://openspacearts.ca/for-love-loss-land#:~:text=Considering%20these%20unfolding%20and%20developing,which%20we%20live%20and%20come |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Open Space |language=en-US}}
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at venues such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Or Gallery, Access Gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Griffin Art Projects, Latitude 53,Grunt gallery, LIVE! Biennale, VIVA! Art Action, Open Space Victoria, CIA (Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas), Palais de Glace, Museo del Grabado de Goya, Centro Cultural General San Martín, Centro Cultural Borges, and Infr'Action Venezia.
Teaching
In addition to her artistic practice, Martínez is a sessional lecturer at UBC's Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, where she teaches performance art.{{Cite web |title=People {{!}} UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory {{!}} Canada |url=https://ahva.ubc.ca/people/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory |language=en-US}}
Her teaching practice integrates notions of embodiment, phenomenology, healing, and the decolonization of bodies and institutions. She has also taught at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.{{Cite web |title=Guadalupe Martinez {{!}} Viva |url=https://2019.vivamontreal.org/en/artist/guadalupe-martinez/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |language=en-US}}