Walter Martin / Paloma Muñoz: Travelers: Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz - Tapa dura

Within the simple constraints of a glass globe, the captivating images in Travelers conjure up entire sequences of imaginary worlds and events. Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz collaboratively create mesmerizing miniature snowbound environments, then record them in chilly color photographs. At first glance the work is playful; on closer observation, it often reveals darker narratives: lone wanderers survey the frigid landscape, people and creatures exhibit unnatural tendencies, and ill-defined crimes are committed. Martin and Muñoz create the figures― either adapting ready-mades or shaping them out of clay, then paint and position them within the environments they also construct. The final compositions are then captured in photographs that are meticulously stitched and adjusted digitally for the final effect. Curator Dan Cameron has complimented the artists on their ability to juggle both visual and psychological charges, “At the same time that they produce riddle-like parables about modern existence, they do not shirk the artist’s obligation to invent a new formulation of tactile and even sensual pleasure.”

Jonathan Lethem is the author of the novels Gun, with Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon, As She Climbed Across the Table, and Girl in Landscape. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz have been professional and personal partners since 1993. Their work is in several museum collections, including Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and La Caixa in Barcelona, Spain. In 2003, their bronze sculptural work was included in MetroSpective at City Hall Park, sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Their Travelers light-boxes were on display in Grand Central Terminal and will also be installed at the Wilshire/Normandie Metro Rail Station in Los Angeles. They are represented by P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York. They live in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, and maintain a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz have been professional and personal partners since 1993. Their work is in several museum collections, including Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and La Caixa in Barcelona, Spain. In 2003, their bronze sculptural work was included in MetroSpective at City Hall Park, sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Their Travelers light-boxes were on display in Grand Central Terminal and will also be installed at the Wilshire/Normandie Metro Rail Station in Los Angeles. They are represented by P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York. They live in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, and maintain a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.