Darrin Martin is an artist and educator. Martin engages the synesthetic qualities of perception through video, performance, sculpture, and print-based installations. Influenced by his own experiences with hearing differences, his projects consider notions of accessibility through the use of tactility, sonic analogies, and audio descriptions.
Martin’s works have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art (NY); Pacific Film Archive (CA); Impakt Festival (Netherlands); European Media Art Festival (Germany), and many others.
His installations have been exhibited at venues including The Kitchen (NY), Grand Central Art Center (CA), Aggregate Space Gallery (CA), Moscow State Vadim Sidur Museum (Russia), McIntosh Gallery (Canada), and, most recently, at SOMArts (CA).
Martin also frequently collaborates with artist Torsten Zenas Burns, building diverse speculative fictions around re-imagined educational practices and dystopian cosplay paradigms. Their works have been included in screenings and exhibitions in venues including The Oberhausen Short Film Festival (Germany), The Paris/Berlin International, Eyebeam (NY), and Dumbo Arts Center (NY). Their most current works are multi-channel media and sculptural installations. ARK 3: Crossover was exhibited at Hobert William Smith College (NY), and later traveled as a three-screen media installation to Zhangzhou Art Museum (China). Their most recent theatrical release of the ARK 3 series, Crossover Chronicles, premiered at The Chicago Underground Film Festival (IL).
Martin received his art degrees with an emphasis on video and sculpture from Alfred University’s School of Art and Design (BFA) and new media and installation at the University of California, San Diego (MFA).
He has held artist residencies at Cite Internationale des Arts, Eyebeam, Experimental Television Center, Signal Culture, chaNorth, and Wassaic Project.
Martin also occasionally curates exhibitions and video screenings. Born in New York, he lives in Oakland, CA, and teaches art at the University of California, Davis.