Opening Reception: a loom, a fence, a wire, a thread

Celebrate the opening of this new contemporary art exhibition with music, food from a food truck, a cash bar, and honoring our featured artist Mär Martinez.

Admission, to this event is FREE! However, donations of any size are gratefully accepted with your order or at the event, in order to support our many free community programs.

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Mär Martinez, a Syrian American artist and Fulbright scholar, presents new work developed during her 2025–26 Fulbright research in Istanbul. Her project investigates traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile techniques while reflecting on themes of urbanization, surveillance, and cultural memory. Drawing from nighttime walks through Istanbul’s neighborhoods, Martinez transforms architectural barriers, barbed wire, fences, hostile design, into motifs of resistance and reweaving. Her haunting wood paintings explore personal heritage, global textile history, and contemporary social commentary in poetic, layered form.

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All 2025-26 free programs at A&H are supported by a grant from Duke Energy Foundation.

Art below courtesy of the artist