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2021

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2019

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2017

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2016

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2015

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2014

Eclipse: Infinite Endings, Catalyst Contemporary, Baltimore, MD

 

Matisse in Bath, Current Gallery. Baltimore, MD

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In/Outside Room/f, Terrault Gallery. Baltimore, MD

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Architectural Body, Open Space, Baltimore, MD

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Life Preservers, Metro Gallery, Baltimore, MD

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Light Undulation, Sprout, Baltimore, MD

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Logical Magic, Windup Space, Baltimore, MD

SEBASTIAN MARTORANA

Sebastian Martorana, Seven Words, found marble and frame, fabricated base, 2019, 38 x 28 x 40 inches

SEBASTIAN MARTORANA

BIOGRAPHY

Lives and works in Baltimore, MD.

1981

BFA Illustration, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

MFA Maryland Institute College of Art’s Rinehart School of Sculpture, Baltimore, Maryland

Resides

Education

Born

Sebastian Martorana is a sculptor working primarily in marble. His sculptures play with the cognitive dissonance between the reclaimed material’s original use in Baltimore’s civic architecture, monuments, tombstones, and statuary and its transformation into surprising, intimate objects like pillows, teddy bears, work gloves, and bath towels. Marble’s
legacy as a symbol of oppressive power and inaccessibility is flipped on its head showing that it can indeed be used to depict humor, gentleness, and social equity. Marble itself is heavy, fragile, beautiful, and porous, and people are conditioned to associate marble with death, loss, or tragedy. In Martorana’s skilled hands, the sculptures display a surprising hi-lo dissonance. The artist’s work on funerary monuments and federal buildings has led him to carve more light-hearted objects that raise questions about materials, meaning, and purpose. To make something delicate, soft, or funny is a challenge, one that the artist eagerly embraces.

SELECTED WORKS

ACQUIRE HERE

PUBLICATIONS

EXHIBITIONS

Artscape Festival, Outdoor Sculpture Show, Baltimore, MD

The Unveiling, Brooklyn, NY

2018

Unveiled, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

Sondheim Semi-finalist Show, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2016

Connections, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

2015

Rinehart’s Studio: Rough Stone to Living Marble, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

2014

Strange Bedfellows, Visarts, Rockville, MD

Hand / Made, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

40 Under 40: Craft Futures, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

(e)Merge. International Art Fair, Washington, D.C.

Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Art Exhibition, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD

Sondheim Semi-finalist Show, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2012

Unlived Histories, Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC

House Show, Case[werks] Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Exposed, The Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

80WSE Presents, Curators’ invitational show, 80WSE Gallery, New York University, New York, NY

(e) Merge, International Art Fair, Washington, D.C.

Sondheim Semi-finalist Show, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2011

Sondheim Semi-finalist Show, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

Uncommissioned Memorials, Solo Exhibition, Irvine Contemporary, Washington, D.C.

​Successions, In/Flux Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Sondheim Semi-finalist Show, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

MANIFEST HOPE:DC, Inaugural show, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Forum of Forty Champions, Minstallation Gallery, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

Habitat, Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD

Introductions4, Irvine Contemporary, Washington, D.C.

2010

2009

2008

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

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