Biography

Will Martin (Cleveland, OH, 1963) grew up in Connecticut, where he attended Suffield Academy. Though accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design, he initially chose to pursue a liberal arts education. That early pull toward breadth would carry through a wide-ranging career, from establishing a fine arts lithography press in Manhattan to designing, implementing, and managing global IT technology and security. In his early years in New York at Trestle Editions, he collaborated with other printers and the artist on the years-long Frank Stella Moby-Dick series. He also collaborated on the Robert Motherwell retrospective project, for which he was formally recognized by The Museum of Modern Art. He went on to establish the influential Oberon Press Ltd. in TriBeCa, and throughout this period sought to work with the most uniquely curious artists of the time.

The drive to collaborate shifted after decades of exploring the possibilities of computers. Completely self-taught, his investigations into computing led him to build networks with transformative effects on a global scale. In time, he began to consider what it might mean to focus on collaborations with machines.

In 2022, after decades away from a traditional art studio and printmaking atelier, Will Martin evolved his art-making from a materials-based practice — including encaustic, paint, and printmaking with non-traditional methods — to a process-based practice in which mark-making happens through his engagement with computer processes of his own design. His use of non-traditional application methods in developing imagery has been a hallmark of his work across media.

In 2023–24, he had a solo show, Ocular, curated by Brian Kane at UAP (Unauthorized Artistic Phenomenon) Gallery, Loveland, Colorado — the first exhibition to represent his collaborative and generative art approach.

Most recently, his work has been included in 2026 | The Artists Among Us, a global, curated group exhibition of works by Sotheby’s colleagues, at Sotheby’s, the Breuer Building, New York, New York. The exhibition run includes: Paris, July 15–24; London, August 17–28; New York, August 21–28.

Will Martin holds an MFA in Painting + Drawing from Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, and an AB in Philosophy + Art from Colby College, Waterville, Maine.