"Beauty Stains; Generosity, that was my first mistake. If god didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep."
October 10—November 9, 2000
Selections from his More Human Than Human series (1999-2000) that engages viewers in a dynamic process of seduction and repulsion. This work uses the body as a place for dialogue on the psycho-social dynamics of identity within public and private spaces and examines the role of photography in representations of reality. In each, the photograph remains as a residue of both public and private actions, thoughts, beliefs, desires and fears.
"Many of us suffer tremendous pain, and we have numbed ourselves to such a degree that we don't know how to feel anymore. We've lost touch with our own selves, our own bodies, our own souls. There are many different ways to uncover those things that have been numb for so long. Sometimes the nerve endings need to be laid bare. They need to be raw again. In order to heal a wound, sometimes you have to open it up to let the disease out. And sometimes you need to do that without anesthesia."
-Daniel Joseph Martinez
Conceptual, installation, public, performance and multimedia artist Daniel Joseph Martinez is internationally known for art of social commentary. Native of Los Angeles, Martinez is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts grants, has exhibited in Aperto at the Venice Biennale the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. and served as the United States Curator for the 1999 Mexican Biennale. He is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of California, Irvine.
