The amount of material; physically, socially and historically, that goes into a work of Patrick Martinez is dense and incredibly immersive. It’s work that speaks to Los Angeles in both a poetic and aesthetic sense, and then as LA has the ability to take what it makes and send it out to the world in universally cinematic ways, Martinez’ work does the same. But it feels like the overgrowth of LA just on a simple street level sense. The works feel like a bougainvillea bush growing over a fence and onto a sidewalk. The way a neon sign is both a sign of life and also a sign of emptiness.
