Beth Martin is a contemporary artist–philosopher whose work moves between painting and mixed media. Her practice explores atmosphere as a material condition — where figuration dissolves, landscapes fracture, and perception shifts.
Working through layered gesture, erasure, and interruption, Martin creates abstracted figures and disrupted terrains that resist fixed narratives. The surface becomes a site of tension: concealment and revelation, solidity and dissolution, presence and absence.
Her studio practice operates as a form of inquiry. Painting is not illustration of theory, but a mode of thinking — a way to investigate how experience gathers in atmosphere and how meaning emerges through movement rather than certainty.
As a professor and doctoral researcher in Visual Arts, Martin’s philosophical work informs and deepens her studio practice, forming a reciprocal exchange between thought and material. Assistant Professor of Art, and a PhD candidate in the visual arts program at The Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Art.
Individual Exhibitions:
Leto: Echos of Ephemera
Barbagelata Contemporary Art Foundation
International Show
Self-Portrait Exhibition
Cottonwood Center for the Arts,
Colorado Springs, CO
Selected Works
Repertoire Art & Design Gallery,
Missoula, MT
Mer Caspienne
3RD Street Gallery of Contemporary Art,
Missoula, MT
The Last Broadcast
Bonsack Gallery of Contemporary Art,
St. Louis,MO.
Structural Impositions
Gateway Tower Gallery of Contemporary Art, St.Louis, MO.
New Works
3rd Floor Gallery, St. Louis, MO.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
ZACC 12th Annual Benefit Show and Auction Missoula, MT
Shown From Afar: Art During the Pandemic, www.Womenworks.art, Poughkeepise,NY
Form, Line, Space, and Shape, Todd Gallery of Fine Art, Murfreesboro, TN
The Art of Me Invitational Exhibition, St. Louis, MO
ZACC Fifth Annual Benefit and Auction Show, Missoula, MT
North Dakota State Fair, Minot, ND
Southwestern Illinois Fine Arts Gallery Art Invitational, Belleville, IL
Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College, New Narratives: Stories and Messages in Contemporary Art, Arnold, MD
Luminary Center For the Arts, Invitational Black and White Ball Exhibit, St. Louis, MO
Southwestern Illinois College, Women’s Invitational Art Exhibit, Granite City, IL
Southwestern Illinois College, Annual Faculty Exhibit, Belleville, IL.
Forest Park Community College Annual Faculty Exhibit, St.Louis, MO.
St. Charles Community College Multimedia Invitational Art Exhibit, St.Charles, MO
Forest Park Community College Annual Faculty Exhibit. St.Louis, MO.
Art St. Louis XXIII, The Exhibition, St Louis, MO.
Varsity Art XI, Art St. Louis Annex Gallery, St.Louis, MO.
Fontbonne University MFA/MA Art Exhibition, St. Louis, MO.
Landscapes of Yellowstone Art Exhibition, Fontbonne University, St.Louis, MO.
Fontbonne University MFA/MA Art Exhibition, St. Louis, MO.
St. Louis Ethical Society Art Exhibition, St. Louis, MO.
Fontbonne University BFA Exhibition, St. Louis, MO.
Selected Juried Exhibitions:
ZACC Fifth Annual Benefit and Auction, Missoula, MT
North Dakota State Fair, Minot, North Dakota
Art St. Louis XXIII, The Exhibition, Art St. Louis Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Blanche Ames 2006 National Art Exhibition, Sharon, MA
Will’s Creek Survey 2006 Exhibition, Cumberland, Maryland
Quincy Art Center 56th Annual Quad State Juried Exhibition, Quincy, IL
Art Saint Louis’ ”Layered, Stitched, Assembled”, St. Louis, MO
50th Annual International Exhibition “Bold Expressions”, Sacramento, CA
Venus Envy Exhibition, St.Louis, MO
Southwestern Illinois Community College Annual Juried Exhibition
Annual Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition
Southwestern Illinois Community College Annual Juried Exhibition
Annual Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition
PUBLICATIONS:
World Wide Art Books, 2010-2011 International Dictionary of Artists, Annual Hardcover Publication
Art Buzz, The 2010 Collection, premier visual arts showcase, Annual Hardcover Publication
Studio Visit Magazine, Winter Edition of 2009, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA
AWARDS:
Best in Show and Best in Category, North Dakota State Fair
56th Annual Quad State Juried Exhibition, 3rd Place Award of $500.00.
Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery Assistantship
50th Annual International Exhibition “Bold Expressions” Merit Award
Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery Assistantship
Art Talent Scholarship of $4,000.00
Transfer Student Award Scholarship of $3,000.00
Most Promising Drawing Student Award of Achievement.
Southwestern Illinois Community College Annual Juried Show Art Book Award.
Annual Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition Merit Award.
William E. and Florence Schmidt Memorial Art Endowment Scholarship.
Annual Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition Merit Award.