todoangel

José Antonio Martínez, without title, C-Print (Ed. 10) 60 x 120 cm

 

He graduated cume laude as an industrial designer at the Iberoamericana University. Prize “The best student” 1973. He has been a student of John Sexton, Brooks Jensen, Dan Burckholder, Yolanda Andrade, Joan Liften, Charles Harbut and Mary Ellen Mark.

Aesthetically disturbing that subtly transforms death into life and the horror in beauty, he developed a proposal, that is part the artistic performances of the sacred.

“Elegia” is a documentary work that has been done for over 8 years in which he visited the morgue of the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. The images show a number of luminosities in the corpes as well as in the athmosphere,at the same time the darkness of the morgue. Through all his work he is looking for the rescue and revaluation of beauty, harmony and the intimate essential expression of his powerful bodies, there is a golden balance that resounds beyond the topic. He gets from the spectator, by means of his compositions, the urge of perceive the texture of the skin. Photos to look at, admire and meditate over them.

Born in 1950 in Mexico D.F.

Collections and Publications
His work forms a part of the collections:
-Photographic Center of North East Seattle
– Photographic Center Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Oaxaca
-Library of the University of Texas. Austin –
-2010 Published the book “Todo Ángel es Terrible” of the collection Luz Portatil of the Publishin house “Artes de Mèxico”

catalogue josé antonio martínez

2010
Elegeia, Ramón Álvarez de la Canal Gallery, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa.

2009
Elegeia, Del Atrio Gallery, Universidad de Guanajuato
exposition part of the program of Visual Arts of the XXIII Festival Internacional Cervantino
Every Angel is terrifying”, Sebastian Foundation, Mexico City
exposition listed in the oficial catalog of Fotoseptiembre 2009.
Every Angel is terrifying, Queretaro’s Museum of Art, Santiago de Querétaro
Las Güeras, French Alliance, north campus gallery, Mexico City.
Las Güeras, Sotocoro de la Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City.

2008
Every Angel is terrifying, Patricia Conde Gallery, Mexico City.
Every Angel is terrifying, Ignacio Ramírez “El Nigromante” cultural center, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

2007
La Raya, Patricia Conde Gallery, Mexico City
Still Life, Museo de la Estampa, Toluca, México

2006
Discourse of the Natural Thing, El Carmen Cultural Complex, Tehuacán, Puebla.

2005
Discourse of the Natural Thing, Bodega de Quetzalli, Oaxaca

2004
In Extremis, Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Oaxaca

2003
In Extremis, Fototeca de Veracruz, Veracruz
In Extremis, El Agora Gallery, Mexico City

group shows

2009
Corpus Aeternum, with Mary Ellen Mark, Graciela Iturbide, Francisco Toledo, Arturo Rivera, et al,
Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Oaxaca, Mexico

2006
El Corazón de Oaxaca, with James Carbone, David Darby and Marcela Taboada
Photographic Center North West, Seattle, Washington

2006
Oaxaca”, with James Carbones and David Darby
Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Oaxaca

2005
Going with the Dogs”, colective work at Camerawork gallery, Scranton, Pensylvania

2001
Bifocales en el asfalto, with Gerardo Fischer, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City.

1998
selected to exhibit at the 1998 edition of the prize “Photographic essay”
Casa de la Américas, La Habana, Cuba.
josé antonio martínez – collections

Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Center, Oaxaca
Museo Centro de la Estampa, Toluca
Wittlif Gallery of Southwestern and Mexican Photography, San Marcos, Texas