Martha Atienza

Martha Atienza (b. 1981) lives and works in Bantayan Island, Philippines. Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, she has moved between these two cultures throughout her life. Constantly oscillating between them has had a profound influence on her focus as an artist. Atienza’s practice explores installation and video as a way of documenting and questioning issues around the environment, community, and development. Her work is mostly constructed in video, of an almost sociological nature, studying her direct environment in the Philippines.

In 2017, Atienza won the Baloise Art Prize in Art Basel for her seminal work Our Islands. Since 2017, her work has been shown and collected worldwide. Prior to this, she was twice awarded the Ateneo Art Awards in Manila (2012/2016) and the prestigious Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artist Award (2015). Recent biennales and triennials include the 17th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2022), Bangkok Art Biennale: Escape Routes, BACC, Bangkok (2020), Honolulu Biennial: To Make Wrong / Right / Now, Oahu, Hawaii (2019); and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2018). Recent group exhibitions include An Ocean in Every Drop at the Jameel Arts Center, Dubai (2022), Breaking Water at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2022), and Animal Kingdom at Âme Nue Artspace, Hamburg (2021). Her solo exhibition The Protectors inaugurated Silverlens New York in 2022.

Martha Atienza is presenting her film at S.E.A. Focus Fringe Film Programme 2023, OFF Focus.