Gregory Martens (b. 1959 Milwaukee WI, USA) grew up in the rural lake town of Muskego WI. His father was a salesman, bus driver, and avid Fundamentalist Christian. His mother was a factory worker, gardener, and craftswoman.
“My work in grad school was about the Apocalypse, trauma narratives, and surviving cancer. We filled an entire gallery room with cancer related art and it brought several people to tears.
Lately, I reach back to my teenage years when I would turn up the 8-track stereo and just draw pictures all night just for the fun of it. I began again to draw hot rods, devils, skeletons, monsters, and other low-brow, blue-collar stuff, and now the artwork tends to makes people smile.”
Martens has had several solo art exhibitions and has been in group shows across the country as well as international shows in Harbin, China and Valencia, Spain. His work is in museums and private collections in the USA, Lima, Cuzco, and Puerto Moldonado Peru, and Beijing and Harbin, China. He is the author of two books: The Sketchbook of Gregory Martens, Waterhouse Press, Milwaukee 2017, and No Time Like the Present: The Art of Gregory Martens, UWM Press 2014.
He is currently a Resident Artist at the House of RAD in Milwaukee.
Complete Curriculum Vitae available on request.