Shantell Martin is a public speaker, curator, philosopher, cultural facilitator, teacher, choreographer, songwriter, performer, and more. From fashion and celebrity collaborations to positions at MIT Media Lab, NYU Tisch ITP, Columbia University’s Brown Institute, and choreographing a ballet at the Boston Ballet, Shantell’s drawn LINE constantly evolves. Creating new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology, Shantell explores themes such as intersectionality, identity, and play.
In addition to prestigious solo shows at some of the most renowned art institutions including the 92Y Gallery in New York City, the iconic Albright Knox Gallery, and the New Britain Museum of Contemporary Arts, Shantell has carved a path for herself that is as much intellectual as a producer and visual artist. At the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, she created a large-scale wall installation and worked with the Institute’s research group to explore how visual and computerized storytelling might influence media and technology innovation. At the NYU Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), she works with her students to push the boundaries of storytelling, visual art, and technology.
A fashion and design icon in her own right, Shantell collaborated with iconic brands such as Vitra, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co, B&B Italia, and in 2021 The North Face launched a global capsule collection featuring her drawings inspired by pieces from their Search & Rescue archive. Shantell also collaborated with legendary artists such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler. In 2019, she created large-scale drawings in the performance hall and foyer of the Lincoln Center for the company’s celebrated Art Series in collaboration with the prestigious New York City Ballet.
Some notable awards Shantell received are the 92Y, Extraordinary Women Award (2019), Shorty Award - Best in Art (2019), MoCADA Museum - Artist Advocacy Award (2017), and the Intel Women Who Spark Award - Women in Technology (2015, Awarded by People Magazine, People en Español, and ESSENCE Magazine, in partnership with Intel Corp).
Some of her recent solo exhibits include The Future, Subliminal Projects, LA (2022), Design District, Side by Side, Joint Gallery Show, London (2021), New Britain Museum of American Art, CT (2020), hpgrp Gallery, Tokyo Wave, Band Of Vices Gallery, LA (2020), The May Room, Governors Island, NY (2019), Lines and Words, Denver Art Museum, CO (2019), and Find Your Way, Lincoln Center, New York City, Ballet, NY (2019).
Shantell has also made numerous media appearances from live performances on the Main Stage at Adobe Max, a TED Talk to performing with Kendrick Lamar at Art Basel, Miami.
As she increasingly incorporates meditative intuition into her artistic practice, Shantell hopes to teach others how to find their own LINES to inevitably find their own PATH. Her distinctive style is one of confidence. It is a confidence that has grown over time. People could look at her lines and say, "Well, I can do that" and she would reply, "Yes, you can." Knowing the many benefits of creativity on mental health and personal growth and how those benefits radiate out into all spheres of one's life and the World. Shantell has made a line distinctively hers. Now, Shantell uses her art practice not just as a passive way to create objects to admire but as an active way to teach others how to create a line that is recognizably their own.
For more details on all her awards and accolades, click here for her formal CV.
The relationship between an artist and collector should be just that... a relationship.
If you are interested in purchasing original artworks please check out the shop and if you are interested in commissioning original artwork, she would like to get to know YOU a little better through a series of questions that will ensure the work she creates goes to great people that will love and value it. Please feel free to email sales@shantellmartin.com for any other shop-related questions.
Credits
Branding & Design by Anton & Irene with love
DANCE EVERYDAY
2017
The first step towards the rebirth for one of Buffalo's historically neglected neighborhoods the East Side's Northland Corridor, Shantell Martin's drawing "Dance Every Day" is a signal of things to come for the long-struggling community. Much of the plant will be demolished as part of a $42 million Buffalo Billion-funded revamp of the Northland Corridor into a hub for light industry and commerce that is being run by the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation. The work is the product of a collaboration between the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's public art program and the University at Buffalo's fledgling Creative Arts Initiative.
"Dance Every Day", Martin's largest ever public art piece, was completed over a weekend in June. In that time, she worked with Buffalo artist Scott Bye and used several cans of spray-paint to transform the whitewashed wall into what many are seeing as a joyful reflection of a neighborhood creaking slowly back to life.
"What I do is playful. I feel like a big kid. What I do, I love it, and I enjoy it," she said. "And even if I come in in a bad mood, like 10 minutes later, I'm in a really great mood because I'm doing something I love. And I think people should do more of that."
Read more here.
