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I am a verb. I traded the future of humans for a caramel frappuccino, there will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined is Daniel Joseph Martinez’ first solo exhibition with the gallery and his first gallery exhibition in Los Angeles in 10 years. The French writer and philosopher Paul Virilio was once famously quoted as saying, "War was my university. Everything has proceeded from there," meaning that all legitimate thoughts or ideas are either born from, or somehow intercepted by chaos, and that the impulse toward destruction is as much, if not more, a part of the creative process as is affection or love. Similarly, Martinez derives meaning from the living world in much the same manner, codifying the often disquieting visual lexicon by which we map out our lives, often turning those culturally determined roadmaps completely upside down. Rather than ascribe meaning to an image or idea, Martinez utilizes the physical body as its own sociological testing ground, at once mutated, mutilated and broken. However, these mutations are not harbingers of a darker more sinister future, but visual amplifications of human responsibility in understanding what might be possible once we move beyond our own biology. The social future possesses its own viable "body" that transcends its physicality just as Martinez' photographs of hunchbacks propose a strange asymmetry and ultimately transform beyond the "monstrous" pushing deeper still into the social fabric of everyday modern culture.

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Bail Bonds Oxygen, 2012
Mixed media with colored neon
45.25 x 72 x 3 in (114.94 x 182.88 x 7.62 cm) - 45.25 x 32 x 3 in (114.94 x 81.28 x 7.62 cm) each
Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
A Story for Tomorrow in 4 Chapters, Dostoevsky Loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Muhammad Ali and Dandelions, Lick my hunch!, 2010-2012
Archival pigment print with UV finishing coating
74 x 60 in (188.0 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
A Story for Tomorrow in 4 Chapters, Dostoevsky Loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Muhammad Ali and Dandelions, Lick my hunch!, 2010-2012
Archival pigment print with UV finishing coating
74 x 60 in (188.0 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
A Story for Tomorrow in 4 Chapters, Dostoevsky Loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Muhammad Ali and Dandelions, Lick my hunch!, 2010-2012
Archival pigment print with UV finishing coating
74 x 60 in (188.0 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
A Story for Tomorrow in 4 Chapters, Dostoevsky Loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Muhammad Ali and Dandelions, Lick my hunch!, 2010-2012
Archival pigment print with UV finishing coating
74 x 60 in (188.0 x 152.4 cm) Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Who Killed Liberty, Can You Hear That, It’s The Sound Of Inevitability, The Sound Of Your Death, 2012
Detail View
Fiberglass and mirror
89.5 x 51.5 x 180 in (227.3 x 130.8 x 457.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
Riot Shield (Butter), 2012
Riot shield with paint
58.5 x 35 x 5 in (148.6 x 88.9 x 12.7 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
it rains on the just and the unjust at the same time, 2012
Bullhorn, paint, cassette player and plastic rod
51.5 x 22 x 67 in (130.8 x 55.9 x 170.2 cm)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
We Buy Gold Facial Waxing, 2012
Mixed media with colored neon
60 x 32 x 3 in (152.4 x 81.28 x 7.62 cm) - 43.625 x 32 x 3 in (110.81 x 81.28 x 7.62 cm) each
Edition of 3 (2 AP)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

Daniel Joseph Martinez
A Little Liberty, 2012
18-Karat gold glazed ceramic - Edition of 100 + 10 Artist Proofs
15 x 4 x 5 inches (38.1 x 10.16 x 12.7 cm)
Published by Roberts & Tilton Hand Fabricated by Ceramica Suro, Guadalajara, Mexico