No Martins Confronts Police Violence and Racism in London Solo Show

No Martins presents his solo exhibition 'Social Signs' in London, focusing on painting while incorporating performance, installation, and materials like truck tarps and metal plates. His work critically examines racism, police violence, and mass incarceration through scenes from São Paulo, where he was born. Martins entered São Paulo's urban art scene in 2003 through graffiti and pichação, later studying at Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade with artists including Kika Levy, Ulysses Bôscolo, and Rosana Paulino, who curated his first solo show in Brazil. His emblematic series '#JaBasta!' uses layered fabrics to create war banners, responding to police shootings of Black youth. Works like 'Campo Minado' feature faceless self-portraits to expose structural racism, while 'Estratagema' depicts a Black person playing chess against themselves with white pieces. 'Uma gravata extra' references the suffocation death of Pedro Gonzaga by a supermarket security guard, drawing parallels to George Floyd's killing. Martins critiques necropolitics and the normalization of Black deaths in Brazil, arguing that major galleries rarely represent artists from marginalized backgrounds without elite institutional training. He emphasizes the need for discussions on police violence to reach affected communities and public schools.