Gabriel Martinez - a Berkeley-based Visual Designer

Gabriel Martinez specializes in political art and Visual Cultural design. Gabriel has an eclectic history of being an artist whose works span the spectrum of being displayed on Bay Area gallery walls or finding their way directly to the hands of people for political empowerment. He has even had his portrait displayed at the de Young Museum. Gabriel's work unifies art and design.

The discursive style elements in Gabriel's work have been inspired by the graphic works of lowbrow art, political cartoons, and culture jamming. Thus, Gabriel has always been comfortable creating with a stylus and a ruler. He realized his knack for doing straight forward graphic design when he enlisted himself to create communication material to promote his art. Working as a graphic designer has allowed Gabriel to be around other creatives and to work for organizations with an emphasis in social justice.

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In the interview, Gabriel mentions studying with mural artist Juana Alicia at Berkeley City College. We also discuss “instagrammable” art and how artists and museums are utilizing this new tool with the example of Masako Miki who recently exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Learn more about Gabriel on Linkedin and Behance. Keep up to date on Gabriel's art musings @sfavc_web on Twitter.

As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.