Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 27 minutes ago
Watch Angelica Arbelaez, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, discuss Leslie Martinez's “Dying in Craters, Gasping in Swirls.”
Leslie Martinez creates large-scale paintings from reclaimed materials, building layered abstractions that explore the fluid spaces between identities. In this work, Martinez draws from the landscapes of the southwestern United States to reflect on cycles of change and renewal. Their vivid color palette was inspired by a period of ecological revival following a severe drought in Texas, their home state.
For Martinez, the places we inhabit fundamentally shape who we are—an idea informed by Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” which traces the writer’s upbringing along the U.S.–Mexico border. For Anzaldúa, the Tejano landscape becomes a metaphor for reconciling multiple aspects of her identity. Similarly, Martinez finds creative potential in the land itself, using it as a site for exploring difference, resilience, and becoming.
Visit the High Museum: high.org
Watch Angelica Arbelaez, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, discuss Leslie Martinez's “Dying in Craters, Gasping in Swirls.”
Leslie Martinez creates large-scale paintings from reclaimed materials, building layered abstractions that explore the fluid spaces between identities. In this work, Martinez draws from the landscapes of the southwestern United States to reflect on cycles of change and renewal. Their vivid color palette was inspired by a period of ecological revival following a severe drought in Texas, their home state.
For Martinez, the places we inhabit fundamentally shape who we are—an idea informed by Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” which traces the writer’s upbringing along the U.S.–Mexico border. For Anzaldúa, the Tejano landscape becomes a metaphor for reconciling multiple aspects of her identity. Similarly, Martinez finds creative potential in the land itself, using it as a site for exploring difference, resilience, and becoming.
Visit the High Museum: high.org
