Delita Martin

Delita Martin was born in 1972 in Conroe, Texas. She attended Texas Southern University in Houston, receiving a BFA in drawing in 2002.[1] She then earned her MFA in printmaking from Purdue University in 2009.[2] She taught at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.[3]

Martin has stated that she knew she wanted to be an artist since she was five years old as she was exposed to art through her father's work as a carpenter and painter.[4]

As a multidisciplinary artist, Martin works across various techniques including printmaking, painting and stitching which incorporates indigenous and modern art-making.[5] Martin uses storytelling to provide a platform for Black women who have often been marginalized.[6] She frequently uses symbolism such as moons to represent women and birds to represent the human spirit.[7] Many of her works contain West African masks which highlight the connection between the mortal and spiritual world.[7] Martin's influences include Elizabeth Catlett, whose work she was introduced to as an undergraduate student.[8] Delita is also inspired by the African aesthetics she has learned exists throughout Black culture.[9]

Martin founded her own studio, Black Box Press, in 2008. She was a lecturer at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in the Fine Arts department from 2008 to 2012.[2] Her work has been shown in the Havana Biennial and in Art Basel Miami.[5] She is a founding member of Black Women of Print, a printmaking collective for Black women which was founded in 2018.[5][10] She is also a member of the ROUX artist collective alongside Ann Johnson, Rabéa Ballin, and Lovie Olivia.[11][12] Delita has been featured as a black woman artist to have on your radar by Marie Claire.[13] She was a juror for “The Contemporary Print: 5×5,” at PrintAustin.[14]

Permanent collections of Delita Martin's works are held by National Museum of Women in the Arts,[15] Salamander Resort,[16] Minneapolis Institute of Art,[17] Bradbury Art Museum,[18] C.N. Gorman Museum,[19] Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art,[20] David C. Driskell Center,[21] Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American-Art,[22] Studio Museum in Harlem,[23] Thrivent Financial,[24] William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum,[24] US Embassy (Mauritania),[25] Muscarelle Museum of Art, and the Georgetown University Art Collection[26] and more.

• Bruce J. and Sharon Goodman Merit Award (2006)[5]
• Telly Award (2010)
• Barbara Deming Emerging Voices Award (2011)

• 2017 They Cried I Am, Gallery 221, Tampa, FL
• 2017 Two Skins, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
• 2017 Black Birds in the Night Sky, Gallery 221, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL
• 2017 Constellations, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA[27]
• 2017 I Come from Women Who Could Fly, Ohr-O'Keefe Museum Of Art, Biloxi, MS
• 2017 Night Women, Annesdale Park Gallery, Memphis, TN
• 2017 Night Women, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
• 2018 The Dinner Table, Art Gallery, Houston TX (June–July 2018)[28]
• 2018 Between Sisters and Spirits, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Houston, TX (January 2018)
• 2018 Between Sisters and Spirits, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD (November 2018–February 2019)
• 2019 Shadows in the Gardens, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA (April–May 2019)
• 2019 Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (February 2019 - September 2020)[29]
• 2019, [Un]Common Collections: Selections from Fifteen Collectors, David C. Driskill Center, College Park, MD (September 2019-November 2019)[30]
• 2020 Calling Down the Spirits, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (January 2020–April 2020)[5][31]
• 2021 Conjure, Art Museum of Southeast Texas (March 13, 2021 – May 23, 2021)[32]

• 2013 Patton, Venetria. The Grasp that Reaches Beyond the Grave. (cover art)
• 2015 Spencer‐Stonestree, Tracy. "Artists to Watch." The International Review for African American Art, Vol. 25, No. 3, Hampton University Museum.
• 2016 Oxford American Magazine, Issue 95, Winter 2016.
• 2017 The Black Scholar, Volume 47, Issue 4, Winter. (cover art)
• 2018 Word, Tanekeya. "Black Womanhood & The Creative Process." Pressing Matters Magazine, Issue 03, Print Communications, United Kingdom.
• 2020 Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World. (cover art)
• 2020 "The Blessing and Burden of Forever" Oxford American Magazine, Issue 109/110, Fall 2020,

• Artist website