2021
2019
2017
2016
2015
2014
Eclipse: Infinite Endings, Catalyst Contemporary, Baltimore, MD
Matisse in Bath, Current Gallery. Baltimore, MD
In/Outside Room/f, Terrault Gallery. Baltimore, MD
Architectural Body, Open Space, Baltimore, MD
Life Preservers, Metro Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Light Undulation, Sprout, Baltimore, MD
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
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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
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