Ochi Projects is pleased to present Sunrooms, an online viewing room exhibition of small works by Lilian Martinez made between 2017 – 2021. The show will be featured online from February 23 – March 20, 2021. 

Using her suggestively Southern California color palette, Lilian Martinez paints female figures and still lifes that ever suggest comfort and ease. Interested in highlighting brown bodies occupying positions that traditionally suggest leisure and privilege, Martinez’ figures fill the picture plane and appear strong and capable, their body language evoking a sense of enjoyment and peace. And as ever, Martinez paints her women in a signature wardrobe that is always both colorful and comfortable, featuring garments such as robes, pajamas and house slippers, or a Nike hat paired with pink open toed mules. In her most recent works, made during quarantine, Martinez painted her figures’ hands disproportionately large, and crossed, as if these women are embracing themselves in a contemplative moment of self-love. After so many months at home, we can all appreciate these inclinations to welcome serene moments of reflection, acceptance and beauty, qualities that Martinez so openly and honestly captures.

Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago, IL) lives and works between Yucca Valley and Los Angeles, CA. She earned a BFA in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of BFGF, an art brand working with digitally printed and woven versions of her artwork. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, most recently with Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, The Naughton Gallery, Belfast, Ireland and Commune, Tokyo, Japan.