Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Hi! I’m Guilherme Martinez “G” for short. I’m a contemporary painter who uses plastic molds to create pixel grid paintings. For short I call them “Gridiculous.” (Grid-Ridiculous). My Mosaic-like Paintings are pixelated manipulations of pop culture, memes and portraiture. I use computer software to map out all my edits and distortions. After this process the original content is altered many times completely lost, and the result is my next painting. Much of my inspiration comes from  Lichenstein, Invader and Chuck Close. Using a grid helps me plan my complex paintings and lets me focus on a tiny area instead of the entire painting. , Even with all of this carful planning I don’t get to see the final result until the mold is removed. Largely why I choose to name this GUESSWORK  . Part of my painting process is not knowing the result! It's all GUESSWORK until the painting is dry and the molds are removed. Only then, do you get to see the final result of my process.



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Process Videos and Mold Removal

Painting Influencers and Techniques

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Chuck Close


I became interested in using a grid to map out my paintings after seeing the process Chuck Close uses for his work. For Close, one Painting can take up to a year to finish. Which is humorous because Close himself said he’s not a very patience painter. By using a grid, Close can focus not on the painting as a whole, but one square at a time. I took Close's principles and applied them to my paintings  A massive painting is a marathon, not a sprint. Treating every part of the canvas with the same amount of care is what ensures a uniform look. The result of of my work is very different from Close, but the principles are the same. 


Roy Lichenstein


A lot of my content is influenced by pop art. We are constantly being bombarded online with Memes, advertisements, DIY videos, cute cat videos, everything! The internet can be overwhelming. I think this is one of the reasons why I make my work so "noisy". I've been told my paintings visually look like TV static on canvas. I really started using a mold for my paintings after seeing how Roy Lichenstein incorporates his Ben  Day dot painting technique. It would be impossible to paint tiny squares without a guide. Roy used stencils and it worked for him beautifully. So I use molds to paint my pixelated images.

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Roy Lichentionton/Andy Warhol


A lot of my content is influenced by pop art,  Andy Warhol has his signature soup cans and Marilyn Monroe silk screens and Roy Lichentionton has his Ben dot painting technique to create his life size comic book dot stencils. I  wanted my own signature look . So I use molds to paint my pixel images.

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Invader


I spent a lot of my childhood playing video games. Hands down one of my biggest time killers. I saw Invader's work a few years ago in a Banksy documentary. I think the video game format of Invader's work brings back a lot of nostalgia for me. The pixelated style of his work reminds me of a simpler time- playing Sonic the Hedgehog, Vector Man or Mortal Kombat. Once I figured out how to pixelate images in photoshop, I started experimenting with my own 8 bit pixel format. That's when I created “Gridiculous." My own signature style of pixelation.

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