Paula Martínez is a Chilean visual artist born in 1997. Her work examines identity as a shifting construction shaped by media, history, and fiction. She approaches image-making as both a conceptual and material investigation, using drawing, painting, performance, video, and installation to question how visual culture informs collective understanding. Her practice explores how iconic figures, especially from antiquity and popular culture, become repositories of imagination and symbolic projection. Through a careful balance between realism and artifice, Martínez reveals the subtle fictions embedded in every image.
Biography and Education
Martínez holds a BA in Art from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. During her studies, she developed a deep interest in the relationship between historical narratives, media circulation, and the construction of identity. She expanded her education through Estudios Independientes V, where she strengthened her theoretical foundations in contemporary art and visual culture.
She is the cofounder of the artist collective La Casa de las Recogidas, which fosters independent artistic creation and dialogue within the Chilean art community. This collaborative involvement mirrors her broader interest in understanding identity as a shared construction shaped by collective imagination.
Martínez has held two solo exhibitions in Chile, including her most recent presentation at OMA Galería in 2025. Her growing visibility in the local art scene is reinforced by her participation in numerous group exhibitions at key cultural spaces. These include Oficina Viceversa in 2025, Feria FAST in 2024, MAVI UC in 2024, Galería Espacio O in 2023, Centro Cultural Matucana 100 in 2023, and Museo de la Educación Gabriela Mistral in 2023.
In 2025, she completed an artist residency at HANGAR Lisboa. This experience brought new perspectives into her practice through critical dialogue, experimentation, and exposure to an international artistic environment. Martínez currently lives and works in Santiago and is represented by OMA Galería.
Artistic Focus
The central theme of Martínez’s work is identity as a cultural and visual creation. She examines how images circulate through time and how they influence the narratives societies construct about themselves. Instead of presenting identity as something fixed, she reveals its fluidity and fragmentation. Historical figures, mythological characters, and icons of popular culture often appear in her work. She uses them as starting points to explore how societies project meaning onto familiar images.
Realism plays an important role in her practice. Rather than functioning as a method of faithful reproduction, realism becomes a tool for questioning what images claim to represent. Her works often appear precise and detailed, yet subtle interventions disrupt the illusion of fidelity. Through these shifts, Martínez highlights the constructed nature of representation and the ways in which images shape understanding and belief.
Mediums and Methods
Martínez works across multiple disciplines. Drawing remains a key part of her practice, allowing her to investigate how the act of rendering shapes perception. She combines charcoal, graphite, and watercolor with structural materials to create works that move between surface and space. Her installations extend these ideas, inviting viewers to encounter images as objects that occupy and transform their environment.
By blending traditional techniques with contemporary formats, Martínez creates a dialogue between historical reference and present-day interpretation. This mix of mediums reinforces her interest in the instability of images and the narratives embedded within them.
Featured Artwork: Isis, 2023
One significant example of Martínez’s approach is the artwork titled Isis, created in 2023. This drawing and installation combines charcoal and watercolor on paper with foamed PVC and an aluminum structure. The piece was exhibited at Kiosko during the Estudios Independientes V VIENAL in January 2024 at the Museo de la Educación Gabriela Mistral in Santiago.
Isis references the ancient Egyptian deity, an image that has circulated across centuries and cultures. Martínez is not concerned with reproducing the myth in a literal way. Instead, she focuses on how the figure has become a cultural symbol shaped by interpretation, translation, and repetition. The detailed drawing contrasts with the structural elements that extend the work beyond the paper, creating a tension between representation and construction.
Through Isis, Martínez explores how mythological figures continue to influence modern imagination. The artwork invites viewers to reflect on how historical symbols evolve and how they continue to shape contemporary visual identity.
Conclusion
Paula Martínez’s work offers a thoughtful investigation into the relationships between image, identity, and cultural memory. Her interdisciplinary practice reveals the layers of fiction, history, and imagination embedded in visual representation. By reworking iconic figures and examining the tension between realism and artifice, she encourages viewers to question the authority of images and the narratives they convey.
As her practice continues to expand through exhibitions, residencies, and research, Martínez stands out as a significant voice in contemporary Chilean art. Her work challenges audiences to look beyond what seems familiar and to consider how identity is continually constructed through the images that surround us.
