Móyòsóré Martins

Private Collection, New York (acquired directly from the artist)

Móyòsóré Martins is a self-taught mixed-media artist. Raised in Lagos, Nigeria by a Brazilian father and a Nigerian mother from Ekiti state, Martins adopted a paintbrush and pencil at a young age as instruments to express his innately curious and spiritual nature. Through his work, Martins blends his traditional Yoruba cultural roots with his contemporary vision of art.

Martins’ artwork combines figurative, abstract, and narrative elements drawn from his unique life experience and journey from Nigeria to his Bronx studio. His work is deeply symbolic and frequently features cultural and personal iconography. Martins’ richly textured paintings feature bold brushstrokes, thick oil paint, drawings, scribbles, collaged materials, and text. The vibrant, heavily layered canvases are interspersed with spiritual elements and wishes manifested and fulfilled.

Attestation (Vouch) is emblematic of the artist’s dynamic and intuitive practice. Teeming with bold color, gestural force, and raw energy, the present work showcases a central totemic figure with exaggerated features including a clustered repetition of eyes and large stylized mouth with teeth bared. Martins punctuates the canvas with inscriptions that reflect the artist’s inner monologue while painting. While instances of “feet” serve a diagrammatic purpose, a series of “1986” denotes the artist’s birth year, an affirmation of life and existence. The canvas for Martins, is a nexus of activity and meaning, not only an opportunity for personal expression, but also a place to interpret and synthesize the external world through his own unique visual language.