If Only God Had Invented Coca Cola Sooner! Or, The Death of My Pet Monkey

2004 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

Daniel Joseph Martinez

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For more than three decades, the Los Angeles–based artist Daniel Joseph Martinez has used every art medium at his disposal to investigate raw aspects of American culture, dipping adeptly into derangements of body and brain, individual and society. In one well-known piece that he produced for the 1993 Whitney Biennial, he replaced the text on the museum’s admission ticket with the phrase “I Can’t Ever Imagine Wanting to Be White.” Visitors held the sentiment in their hands and kept it in their pockets. In The House America Built (2004), he re-created in exacting detail the cabin in which the Unabomber penned his manifesto. While Martinez’s concepts are tight and concise, they leave ample space to implicate the viewer. His work prompts more than finger pointing; it catalyzes introspection, signaling the necessity of taking stock of one’s own role in perpetuating difficult yet ubiquitous images.

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Colors:

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• united_states.n.01
• culture.n.01
• democratic.s.03
• society.n.01
• politics.n.01
• humanity.n.01
• appropriation art
• art that plays with scale
• collective history
• color photography
• conflict
• american