Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present Beyond the Horizon, a solo exhibition by Miami-based, Honduran-born artist Emilio Martinez. Known for his emotionally charged, expressionistic style and allegorical narratives, Martinez reflects on dreams, migration, memory, and the unknown.
At the heart of Martinez's practice is a deeply personal investigation into identity and transformation. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and immigrating to the U.S. at age thirteen, Martinez employs his experiences of cultural dislocation and adaptation, using painting to process complex emotional and psychological states. His work is rooted in both personal memory and inherited trauma—turning dreamscapes and subconscious fears into rich visual allegories.
Haunting beasts and shadowy figures emerge from the depths of the artist's psyche. With a visual language shaped by 20th-century Figurative Expressionism, Martinez conjures macabre fantasies populated by fanged creatures and shadowy figures. These images, rendered in bold, expressive brushstrokes, blur the boundaries between nightmare and myth, evoking the raw emotional truth of dislocation and transformation.
"Since I was a little kid, I used to have dreams filled with strange characters—figures that frightened me," Martinez reflects. "I didn't know who they were or what they meant. As I grew older, I began searching for answers, for meaning in the fear. That search brought me to the horizon—that edge between what we know and what lies beyond. The horizon holds everything: happiness, sadness, uncertainty. We often don't allow ourselves to look past it. But I've learned that curiosity matters—that striving to see beyond what's in front of us opens up new possibilities. These paintings are a reflection of that search: into the self, into fear, and into the hope that maybe, just maybe, what awaits us on the other side will be better."
Beyond the Horizon is a cautionary journey into the subconscious, where each work acts as a chapter in an ever-unfolding tale of survival, spirituality, and self-reconstruction. Through allegory and intuition, Martinez calls viewers to look beyond surface realities and confront the hidden forces—both internal and societal—that shape our sense of self.
Martinez's work has been exhibited at institutions including the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Frost Art Museum, Instituto Cultural de México in Miami, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales in Havana, and Galeria Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, among others. His paintings are held in private and institutional collections throughout the United States and internationally.
