Born in 1959 in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, Wence Martinez spent his childhood shepherding and learning to weave under his father and grandfather. At age 14 a scholarship in weaving took him to Taller Nacional de Tapiz in Mexico City. Under Bertha and Pedro Preux, Martinez studied Gobelins, natural, and aniline dyeing techniques, and embraced weaving design as fine art. He immigrated to the United States in 1990 and opened Martinez Studio in Jacksonport, Wisconsin, in 1994. Martinez’s work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, WI. His many awards include the a 2018 U.S. Artists Fellowship for Collaborative Craft and several Smithsonian Craft Show honors. One of Martinez’s greatest joys is mentoring his daughter Malena and her husband Jacobo in Teotitlán as they master the skills of weaving and create original Martinez Studio designs.
