Artists

No Martins is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist whose work examines the lived realities of Afro-Brazilians in contemporary urban life. Beginning with his early practice in pixação and graffiti, Martins has developed a body of work spanning painting, performance, and object-based installations that probe systemic issues of racism, territorialism, social inequality, and the disproportionate incarceration of Black Brazilians. His practice highlights the stark divisions of class, gender, and race that shape everyday existence in Brazil.

Through bold figuration and charged interventions, Martins creates works that both honor Afro-Brazilian resilience and expose enduring structures of violence and exclusion. Recent projects have focused on the phenomenon of mass incarceration, underscoring how Brazil—home to the third largest prison population in the world, 65% of whom are Black—carries the legacy of slavery into the present.

Martins has participated in major exhibitions including Afro-Atlantic Histories at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and Tomie Ohtake Institute (2018), the 21st Bienal de Arte Contemporânea Sesc_Videobrasil (2019), and What is not forest is political prison at Reocupa Gallery (2019). His solo exhibitions include Mine Field at Baró Galeria, São Paulo (2019); Everything Under Control at the São Paulo Cultural Center (2019); and To those who have gone, to those here and to those who will come at the Pretos Novos Institute, Rio de Janeiro (2019). He has also been an artist-in-residence in Luanda, Angola, and is a recipient of the Sesc Contemporary Art Award.