Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the Fine Arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin is currently working as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press.
Primarily working from oral traditions, along with vintage and family photographs as a source of inspiration, Martin explores the power of the narrative impulse.
Her finished works combine collage, drawing, painting, printmaking and sewing techniques, placing her figures amid patterns to represent visually what it looks like when we become the  spiritual other: "when we pray or meditate … we enter the veilscape." Martin's layering of technique and material, as well as her use of pattern and colour, signify a liminal space – the space between the waking life and the spirit life. By fusing this visual language with oral storytelling in this different space she offers other identities and other narratives for women of colour.
Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently, her  work was shown at the 2022 Venice Biennale, National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and welcomed into the Library of Congress. She served as 2021 Keynote speaker for the Mid-America Print Council.

Solo exhibitions
2021 Wait For Me In The Still Waters, Ringel Gallery, Purdue University, West Layfette, IN (US). Conjure, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX (US). Union For Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE (US). 2020 Calling Down the Spirits, National Museum for Women In the Arts, Washington DC. 2018 Between Sisters and Spirits, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD (US); Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Houston, TX (US). 2017 The Other Side of the Moon, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA (US). Night Women, Bradbury Museum, Jonesboro, AR (US); Annesdale Park Gallery, Memphis, TN (US). I Come from Women Who Could Fly, Ohr‐O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS (US). Constellations, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA. Black Birds in the Night Sky, Gallery 221, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL (US). Two Skins, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR (US). They Cried I Am, Gallery 221, Tampa, FL. 2016 Night Women, Bradbury Museum, Jonesboro, AR. I Walked On Water To My Home Land, Mosaic Templar Cultural Center, Little Rock, AR (US). The Women Gathered, Purdue University Gallery, West Lafayette, IN (US). 2014-2015 I Come From People Who Could Fly, Arts & Science Center Museum for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff, AR (US); Texas Southern University, Houston, TX. 2014-2015 Beyond Layers, South Dallas Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas; Arkadelphia Arts Center, Arkadelphia, AR (US). 2013Transitions, Norman Hall Art Gallery, Arkansas Technical College, Russellville, AR (US). 2012-2013 Piecing Together, The Stephens Gallery, University of The Ozarks, Clarksville, AR (US); Boswell Mourot Gallery, Little Rock, AR. 2011 In My Mother’s House, Russell Fine Arts Gallery, Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, AR (US). 2010 She Who is Brown, David W. Mullins Library, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Fayetteville, AR (US).

Group exhibitions
2022 The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined, La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Bembo, Venice (IT). 2020 Women Heal Through Rite and Ritual, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD. Renaissance: Noir, UTA Artist Spaces, Beverly Hills, CA (US). 2019 Minneapolis Institute of Art, Print and Drawing Fair, Minneapolis, MN (US). Building Bridges II: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race, 13th Annual Havana, Biennial, Galeria Carmen Montilla, Havana. On Their Own On Their Own Terms (19th – 21st Century), University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Brad Cushman and Small Galleries, Little Rock, AR. 2018 Scope Art Fair, Miami Basel, Galerie Myrtis, Miami, FL (US). Minneapolis Institute of Art Drawing and Print Fair, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (US). Print Austin: Roux, Prizer Arts and Lettering, Austin, TX. 2017 Salt, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, TX (US). Building Bridges: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD. The Last Ten Years: In Focus, The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD (US). State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC (US). State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, The Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN. A Professor’s Influence: The Sperry Thompson Collections, Culver-Stockton College, Canton, MO (US). Shifting: African American Woman Artist and the Power of Their Gaze, The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. 2016 Spectrum Art Fair - Miami Basel, Miami, FL. State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN. State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA (US). As Bad As I Wanna Be: Reclaiming Black Womanhood, Community Folk Art Center Syracuse, NY (US). Lest We Forget, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD. 2015 Emergence 2014: International Artist to Watch, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD. A Black Perspective, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA. The Artist Gaze: Seeing Women In The 21st Century, Sirona Fine Art Gallery, Hallandale Beach, FL (US). 2014 Suga, BLUEorange Contemporary Gallery, Houston, TX. State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville, AR (US). 2014 Her America, Carver Community Cultural Center, San Antonio, TX (US). 7th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro, Douro Museum, Alijo (PT). 2013 Global Print 2013, Lamego Museum, Douro Museum, Alijo.

Education
MFA 2009 Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Studio Art: Printmaking, Drawing, Mixed Media, Installation
BFA 2002 Texas Southern University, Houston, TX
Fine Art: Drawing

Professional Experience
2020-Present Founder - Black Box Press Foundation, Huffman, TX (US).
2008-Present Owner - Black Box Press Studio, Huffman, TX
2019 Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Special Edition Project (Current project)
2017 Lecturer, The Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, NC
2008-2012 Lecturer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Department of Art. Courses Taught: Introduction to Art History Advanced, Basic Drawing, and Printmaking
2007-2008 Printmaking Shop Technician. Purdue University, Department of Visual and Performing Arts
2006-2007 Graduate Teaching Assistant Purdue University, Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Courses Taught: Relief Printmaking and Basic Drawing
2002-2003 Exhibition and Education Coordinator, Community Artists’ Collective, Houston, TX

Publications
2021 Martin, Delita, Conjure. Cleveland, Christena, God Is A Black Woman, Cover Art. Lindsey, Treva B., America Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice, Cover Art. Black Art In America, December Vol I Issue VI (Cover Art). Uppercase Magazine, Issue 47. The Hand Magazine, Issue 31. Ruminate Magazine, Mend/57, Winter 2020/21. 2020 International Review of African American Art, The Evolving Imagery of the Black Women. Ellington, Tameka, Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair. Presstime Magazine, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Fall/Winter 2020. Johnson, Jessica Marie, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in The Atlantic World. Cover Art. 2019 Martin, Delita, Shadows In The Garden. 2018 Asgarian, Roxanna. Texas Observer. Houston Artist Delita Martin Gives Black Women a Seat at the Table in New Exhibit. June 2018. Word, Tanekeya. Black Womanhood & The Creative Process. Pressing Matters Magazine, Issue 03, Print Communications, United Kingdom. 2017 The Black Scholar, Volume 47, Issue 4, Winter, Cover Art. 2016 Oxford American Magazine, Issue 95, Winter 2016. 2015 Spencer-Stonestree, Tracy. Artists to Watch. The International Review for African American Art, Vol. 25, No. 3, Hampton University Museum. 2013 Patton, Ventria. The Grasp that Reaches Beyond the Grave. Cover Art.