Cultural memory, identity, sense of place, surveillance and urban life are all woven together like carpet threads in a new exhibition at Maitland Museum of Art and History.
“Loom, Fence, Wire, Thread” is the first solo museum exhibition for Mar Martinez, a UCF graduate who currently resides in New York. Martinez is expanding on ideas he explored during his 2021-2023 studio residency at the Maitland Art Gallery. The new body of work draws inspiration from traditional textile practices in Turkey and the Middle East and was developed during a Fulbright study in Istanbul in 2024-2025.
Martinez interweaves Cuban and Syrian traditions in her work, finding strength in the symbolism of the rugs her family brought with them when they fled Syria.
“They became more than just visual symbols, they became symbols of resilience and resistance,” said Dan Hess, the museum’s chief curator. “She thinks of all the displaced people who are moving from one place to another. For her, the rug is this home that they take with them and put in a new place, and it becomes their home again.”
The painting incorporates scenes that Martínez witnessed during a night walk in Istanbul and pondered the lines and boundaries created by urban barriers during a time of political unrest and repression. This experience made Martinez think about herself and her relationship with home.
“One of the things I was thinking about was the resilience and strength that comes from turning inward to cultural memory. To make a carpet, you’re winding threads endlessly. It certainly creates something by standing. That was an important ongoing theme for me,” she said. “Even though these objects are under great tension, they gain survivability thanks to this wrapped structure. I think it’s really amazing that these textiles were able to survive regime changes and language changes. They have stood the test of time with us today.”
Martinez’s previous body of work has included painting wooden cutouts, including ones resembling carpets, to illustrate textiles pulled from the background. In the new exhibition, paintings on unstretched canvas are hung on the walls like rugs. Part of this was born out of necessity when working with limited materials.
“Just like a rug, you could roll up a painting, package it, and take it across the country and across the ocean,” Martinez said. “That’s literally what my family did when we were evacuating from Syria with tons of fabric. They rolled up the fabric and carried it on their backs.”
Each painting has a luminous quality, with the figures and fabrics appearing to glow from within. Some canvases feature only fences and textile patterns, while others incorporate hands or figures, sometimes in moments of danger. The fine, boring brushstrokes remind me of the practice of weaving, where you work in small lines to build a larger whole.
As visitors walk through the exhibition, the central gallery is painted and illuminated to represent Martinez’s nighttime stroll through Istanbul. The final gallery of the exhibition features a painting titled “Conversations at the Bottom of the Hill About the Top of the Mountain”, which shows determination in the face of adversity and uncontrollable circumstances.
“She’s thinking, ‘How can I stay unfazed by everything that’s going on in the world?'” Hess said. “I think Want to Be a Mountain is a really interesting way for her to get off the show. It’s like people can follow her career and see what happens next.”
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If you go
Looms, Fences, Wires and Threads will host a free opening reception April 24 from 6:30 to 9 p.m., featuring music from artist and DJ Nigel John, a food truck from La Patrona Taco & Birria House, and a cash bar located at 231 West Packwood Avenue in Maitland. The show is on display until July 5th. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5-$6 and are free for local college students, military, veterans and Maitland residents. More information: artandhistory.org
