Solo Exhibition
PROMISE OF SWEETNESS
May 14 to June 12, 2022
Stamford Art Association
39 Franklin Street, Stamford, CT 06901
stamfordartassociation.org
Nadia Martinez's skill at controlling materials and transforming them into graceful, delicate forms of expression are refreshing and inspiring. In this body of work, by using sugar as her material, Nadia surrenders control and embraces process as a new aesthetic form, creating the conditions for generosity, contemplation, and discovery.
She questions the idea of "instant gratification." By revisiting a happy memory instead of relying on contemporary narratives of happiness and sweetness that Capitalism has promoted.
Nadia shares a happy memory with the public, and in exchange, she invites the viewer to do the same thing.
"These trying times have had everyone looking for comfort. In my search, I went deep into my childhood memories, back to "La Sierpe," my grandpa's molienda, his artisanal sugarcane mill, and plantation, and found my sweet and happy place—a wonderful space to escape from everything happening around me. In that memory, I found a new meaning for 'sweetness' that went beyond something that could be experienced with one sense. Remembering my family working together to make from scratch something sweet, I realized that the sweetness that I was looking for was found in community, traditions, and laughter. My project, Promise of Sweetness, chronicles the growing of sugarcane from seed to plant in an effort to conjure this happiness." – Nadia Martinez
