Christina Catherine Martinez writes about contemporary art practices in, of, and about Los Angeles that intersect with different forms of popular culture: fashion, movies, online communities, and comedy. She is interested in how representation manifests in performances of gender and identity, betraying shifting values and world views. Her writing examines cultural contexts as fields of power as well as the sites in which these performances play out—particularly in Los Angeles, where experimental poets make sitcom debuts, stand-up comedians inhabit contemporary art installations, and blockbuster actors sponsor artist books.
Christina Catherine Martinez is an arts writer and stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in VICE, Artforum, Texte Zur Kunst, ArtSlant, Art Practical, CNN Style, Border Crossings, Momus, Elephant, and the Art Book Review, as well as in various anthologies and artist catalogues. The Comedy Bureau has described her live act, which she performs regularly in comedy and art venues all over North America, as “a great bridge between many different disciplines, including performance art, stand-up, and clowning.”[period] She was a 2013 resident of the Georgia Fee Artist/Writer residency in Paris, and a 2018 recipient of the inaugural bar-fund artist grant in Los Angeles. Her first book of essays, named after her ongoing comedy talk show Aesthetical Relations is forthcoming in 2019 from Hesse Press.