This Chicana artist turns personal belongings into contemporary vanitas paintings │Victoria Martinez

Victoria Martinez paints handbags, porcelain, shoes, and personal belongings with extraordinary precision but her paintings are never really about objects alone. The Los Angeles-born Chicana artist uses contemporary vanitas painting to explore identity, accumulation, nostalgia, and the emotional weight we attach to the things we keep. After spending decades between cultures, from 1990s LA graffiti culture to life in Mexico City, Victoria developed a practice that turns everyday possessions into