DELITA MARTIN (b. 1972, Conroe, TX) is a master printer and draftswoman whose work explores the beauty and complexity found in the spiritual identities of African American Women. Through her mixed-media printmaking practice, which includes the layering of various printmaking processes, drawing, painting, collaging, and hand-stitching, Martin celebrates her sitters’ strength and resilience in a world that often overlooks or devalues them. Through her use of pattern, texture, and color, she creates immersive veilscapes that are deeply personal yet accessible to viewers. Her distinctive style combines elements of realism, abstractions, and symbolism, creating bold portraits of Black women. Martin received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas and MFA in printmaking from Purdue University, Indiana. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin is currently working as a full-time artist in her studio in Huffman, Texas.
In 2024, Martin presented two major solo exhibitions. Sometimes My Blues Change Colors at the Featherstone Center for the Arts in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (July 28 – September 1, 2024) marked a historic milestone as Martin was the inaugural female African American artist to present a solo exhibition at this institution. Earlier in the year, Martin's solo retrospective Her Temple of Everyday Familiars at the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries, the University of Texas at San Antonio (January 26 – March 22, 2024) featured a retrospective of the artist’s career, including works produced in her adolescence, an interactive installation, and recent works.
Select national and international exhibitions include National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas; the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibition The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined (curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, Maryland, who represents Martin), Italy; Print Association Bentlage Residency Showcase, Kloster Bentlage, Rheine, Germany. Permanent collections include: Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas; Gorman Museum, California; Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas; David Driskell Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Minnesota Museum of American Art; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Petrucci Family Foundation, New Jersey; William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, Arkansas; U.S. Embassy, Nouakchott, Mauritania. Martin’s work was included in McClain Gallery’s group exhibition Strangeness, Tone, Translucency and at McClain Gallery’s two-person presentation at ADAA The Art Show, both in 2024..