TRACE(s)
2020-09-23 - 2020-11-30 | The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road, NW, Washington, DC, 20007
The Kreeger Museum is pleased to present TRACE(s), an exhibition featuring regional artists Billy Friebele, Roxanna Alger Geffen, Rania Hassan, Sebastian Martorana, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Antonio McAfee, Brandon Morse, and Johab Silva. Guest curated by Sarah Tanguy, the show explores how the past evokes shifting memories while suggesting new and present narratives. Rich in representation and abstraction, TRACE(s) encompasses painting, photography, mixed media, sculpture, sound, and video, and includes several site-responsive installations. As the artists dialogue with their source materials, they mine the many meanings of “trace” as noun and verb, and engage the themes of displacement, connectivity and transformation. Variously inspired by personal and cultural history, the natural and built environments, and the human condition, they offer an impassioned take on the issues of the day and suggest possible futures to come.

The Foundations of What
2023-01-26 - 2023-03-04 | Catalyst Contemporary, 523 N. Charles St., Baltimore, 21201, United States
Catalyst Contemporary presents, “The Foundations of What,” a group exhibition that pushes and questions the boundaries of contemporary sculpture while addressing deep-seated concerns about the truths that underlie our visual perceptions, our cultural principles, and relationships to one another. Artists include Jose Arellano, Alberto Cavalieri, Kei Ito, Gard Jones, Giulia Livi, Caryn Martin, Sebastian Martorana, James von Minor, and Geoff Robertson.

Public/Private
2023-11-10 - 2024-03-24 | Academy Art Museum, 106 South Street, Easton, Maryland, 21601
Academy Art Museum
Sebastian Martorana (American, b. 1981) creates masterful sculptural vignettes of public and private life out of the timeless medium of marble. Carving highly realistic yet unlikely textures such as those of an old mattress, a teddy bear, or the pages of a book out of stone, Martorana comments on sociopolitical realities and the human condition in his work. The stoic, classical appearance of marble connects his subjects to a social and artistic legacy that has been more hegemonic than welcoming for millennia, and Martorana wittily questions this through his focus on intimate subjects: Kermit the Frog’s unwavering eye contact with the viewer is a playful reflection on childish attachment, while a plush sheep evokes the human need for comfort. In his contrasting works depicting objects pertaining to public life, such as marble benches that will activate the Museum’s courtyard during the exhibition, Martorana explores the power and possibilities of community.
Martorana received his BFA in illustration from Syracuse University, where he also studied sculpture, including a semester in Italy. After graduating he became a full-time apprentice in a stone shop outside Washington, D.C. He received his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Rinehart School of Sculpture. Martorana is currently an adjunct professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Martorana’s works have received numerous awards and are included in various private and public collections. His sculpture Impressions was featured in the exhibition “40 Under 40: Craft Futures,” at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The sculpture was acquired by the museum and is now part of their permanent collection.

Let's Make! at the American Craft Council
2025-02-21 10:00 - 2025-02-23 18:00 (America/New_York) | Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Let’s Make!
Explore craft demonstrations and hands-on activities.

Let’s Make! is an interactive exhibit in American Craft Made showcasing the process and skill that goes into making carefully crafted goods. Explore fun and educational demonstrations and interactive activities led by regional arts organizations, partners, and businesses.
Get a little dusty trying stone-carving and get a sparkly gold-leafing etched marble.
FULL DETAILS HERE

BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts
2025-04-04 - 2025-09-21 | Meijer Gardens, 1000 East Beltline Avenue NE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49525, United States
BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts, showcases this ancient sculpture genre as radically transformed by 21st-century artists. Throughout history, sculpted busts have served to commemorate and preserve the likeness of distinguished individuals, and to celebrate divinity or nobility. In recent years the bust format has experienced a revival among contemporary artists, as they’ve found it a compelling means to address issues tied to identity, mortality, power, and history. Featuring work in diverse materials—from marble to fabric—and made by artists from various cultural backgrounds, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on vital questions in art history and human representation. Together these sculpture busts demonstrate the continued vitality of figural art as a means of addressing both timeless concerns and the most pressing issues of today.

Lets Make! at the American Craft Made Baltimore
2026-02-20 - 2026-02-22 | Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201, United States
Let’s Make!
Now in its 49th year, American Craft Made Baltimore is a celebrated local institution that brings together over 400 artists, 10,000 attendees, and dozens of local partner organizations from across the East Coast for shopping, demonstrations, hands-on experiences, and connection through craft.

Let’s Make! is an interactive exhibit in American Craft Made showcasing the process and skill that goes into making carefully crafted goods. Explore fun and educational demonstrations and interactive activities led by regional arts organizations, partners, and businesses.
Get a little dusty trying stone-carving and get a sparkly gold-leafing etched marble.
FULL DETAILS HERE
