Emily Martinez’s (b. 1999 Queens, NY) work investigates fantasy and myth in fashion, religion, and gender. She combines these elements to empower the figure and create a form of escapism through fictional landscapes and narratives that foster a theatrical and heightened sense of reality. She is focused on elevating brown bodies in the tradition of painting through scale and color. Often drawing from Renaissance paintings or Mexican murals that depict Christian beliefs and extravagance, Emily subverts the motifs of these periods by using those themes to develop new worlds around spectacle, sexuality, womanhood, and magic. She received her BFA from the University of Central Florida in 2022 with a minor in Latin American Studies. Emily lives and works in Tampa, FL, and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of South Florida.