Martinez regards his large-scale, sculptural mixed media paintings as landscapes that reflect the vibrant social geography of his current neighbourhood and that of his youth. In the painting Serpents (Welcome to the Jungle) (2022), Martinez combines the symbolic imagery of battling serpents (from the Murals of Cacaxtla in Central Mexico) with elements of vernacular architecture: stucco surfaces, decorative tiles from Mexican and Salvadorian restaurants and commercial neon signage found in small establishments all around LA. Layering varied gestures and composite materials in this monumental panel to mirror the rich accretions of the city, he highlights the current of entropy and collapse that characterises these large metropolises.

In response to the notion of the city as a site of memory - wherein surfaces are a collaborative, social canvas layered with graffiti and murals - Martinez demonstrates how symbols from early pre-Columbian art are stand-ins for identity and affiliation, given they are often used to denote a Mexican-owned establishment. The painting’s title borrows from two songs significant to the artist during his teenage years - ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns n’ Roses and ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The artist’s reference to these tracks at once points to the lifestyle adjustment necessitated by big cities, as well as the precarious economic status of this community in LA.

In Weeping Warrior (2022), a representation of a warrior, also taken from the Cacaxtla murals, is combined with neon, ceramic cake roses and tiles to recreate the wall of a typical stuccoed restaurant or bar. This composite surface, in parts fragile or appearing distressed, suggests a surface in between states, in the process of decay or perhaps regeneration. Set against a harsh, acid green background peppered with stucco roses, the warrior figure is an archetype for a form of toxic masculinity, which Martinez sees as being destructively prevalent in these communities.

By collapsing past with present, firmly locating the works within his neighbourhood and adopting imagery from the art of Latin America - from pre-Columbian jade masks to the murals of Socialist Realism - Martinez celebrates this urban community and in so doing, invites a potential change in perception.

Transporting viewers to the fringes of LA, in SGV Bougainvillea (2023) Martinez renders the brilliant pink flower so common to the area, often found cascading down the dilapidated walls of the rundown, often graffitied buildings. Here, the collision of nature and the urban environment serves to reflect his own sensate experience of driving at night through the San Gabriel Valley at the city’s edges.

Martinez’s ongoing series of neon sculptures, in which bold statements are written in neon on plexiglas panels, employ the impactful form of the storefront sign. Used to advertise products, job vacancies, or even offer religious salvation, these neon signs are a prominent feature of the visual landscape of most American cities. Quoting lines of poetry, fragments from rap songs or using blunt socio-political messages, these works engage with both contemporary social discourse and the history of neon sculpture, from Minimalism onwards. Appealing to a collective conscience, Martinez’ focus is on personal, civic and cultural loss, and the desire is for diversity, inclusion and responsibility.

Inspired by the Pee Chee All Season Portfolio, the common American school folders used by children to store their papers, the ‘Pee Chee’ series transforms a ubiquitous stationery item into a document of social injustice. Replacing the folder’s usual images of American athleticism with images of social activists or with victims of police violence, Martinez brings to the fore the violence and corruption endured by contemporary American society.