Patrick Martinez: Ghost Land

September 23, 2023 – January 7, 2024 Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco

My role: curation, project management, public programming, exhibition design, oversaw artwork fabrication, installation, communications, marketing, design

Presented at ICA SF, a solo exhibition which was the artist's most expansive and ambitous project to date. During the run of the exhibition, we organized community engagement programs such as a graffiti room, screen printing demos, and artist talks.

About the exhibition:
Ghost Land pays homage to urban landscapes lost and destroyed. Patrick Martinez unearths stories of resilience and solidarity in the face of rapid gentrification, speaking to the realities of displaced communities across California and beyond. Excavating overlapping histories embedded in specific materials, he exposes complicated truths behind the romanticization of California. Erased, eroded, and ruined details throughout Ghost Land capture not just the passage of time but ongoing personal, civic, and cultural loss. Like graffiti that still remains after attempts to erase it, this exhibition is a testament to what endures, what refuses to be forgotten.