V. Kim Martinez, MFA, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Utah, since 2001. Her research interests include: Painting and Drawing, Encaustic Painting, Community Murals, Foundry, Mosaics and Video Animation. She received her terminal degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received the George L. & Ann Roman Siegel Foundation fellowship.

Professor Martinez’ research concerns visual communication that investigates societal structures that shift/fluctuate between the positive and the negative, the concrete and the abstract, based on direct experience with the challenges of specific locations and situations. Her research record includes over 150 curatorial regional, national and international exhibitions. Regional: Salt Lake City, Ogden, Park City, Ephraim, and Springville. National: New York, Illinois, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Ohio and Vermont. International: Mexico, China, Palestine, Colombia, Brazil, Guainía and Chile. Artist fellowships include: The Sara Lee Foundation, Ragsdale, Vermont Studio Center, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Social and Public Art Resource Center, International Iron Casters, Kenyon College, Grand Canyon University, the University of Utah John R. Parks/UCLA César Chávez Mural Lab and the College of Fine Arts.

Professor Martinez is an enthusiastic educator and is committed to public engagement through the arts. In 2002, she envisioned a community mural course to provide students real world experience to create, propose, and implement public art in the form of mural designs and site-specific painting throughout the Salt Lake City area. Martinez has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts “Challenge America” through the Utah Arts Council, Utah Transit Authority, City of South Salt Lake, Salt Lake County, University of Utah Residential Living Center, Primary Children’s Medical Center, and the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The grants have provided equipment and supplies to complete 19 murals as well as 118 student travel scholarships. Kim’s commitment to innovation and exploration of teaching methodologies exemplified by a new interdisciplinary undergraduate experience developed and co-taught with Dr. Sylvia Torti from biology. Students in this intensive residency course at the University of Utah’s Rio Mesa Center simultaneously engage in two disciplines: Landscape Painting and Landscape Ecology in an effort to implement intersection between the disciplines. Martinez is the recipient of the College of Fine Arts Faculty Excellence Award, the Tanner Humanities Center“Professors Off-Campus Project, and has received recognition from The Center for Disabilities.”

Martinez’s commitment to university shared governance philosophy is reflected by her membership in the University Academic Senate and Executive Committee, Teaching Committee, and Dee Council. She served as chair for the Department of Art and Art History Warnock Committee, a biannual semester long campus residency designed to allow students to interact with nationally and internationally ranked visiting artists. Professor Martinez has served on community board of directors and councils, South Salt Lake Arts Council, Art Access, Utah Hispanic Women’s Institute, and gubernatorial appointments to the Department of Corrections Advisory Council, and the Utah Correctional Industries Advisory Council. V. Kim Martinez is the recipient of the 2003 Salt Lake City Mayors Visual Artist Award, recognizing her community involvement and contribution to the Utah Department of Corrections Women’s facility, Veterans Administration, First Step House and Art Positive!