Martin Venezky is an artist and photographer exploring relationships between objects, form, drawing, and the image. His work shifts scale from intimate gatherings of discarded objects to expansive wall-sized installations.

Venezky's background in graphic design sparked his interest in abstraction as a narrative device. His skills in book design and typography, for which he has won international acclaim, have encouraged his exploration of the photobook as a primary medium for future work.

In 2001 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honored Venezky with a solo exhibition, and, in 2005, his monograph, It Is Beautiful...Then Gone, was published by Princeton Architectural Press. In 2016 Venezky was named a member of the esteemed Alliance Graphique Internationale, and recently, San Francisco’s Letterform Archive has acquired an extensive collection of his work, studies and process for their permanent collection.

Venezky has an undergraduate degree in Visual Studies from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has taught at RISD and CalArts and, for almost thirty years, at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he is currently Professor in the Graduate Design Program. 

Although a longtime resident of San Francisco, Venezky has recently relocated to Michigan to study towards an MFA in Photography at Cranbrook, thirty years after receiving his design degree from the same institution. He is using this time to further his investigation of abstraction through photography and markmaking.

In 2018 Mike Slane and his Denver-based studio, Practice, filmed a short documentary about my photo and design work, as well as my studio and collections. Watch it here.

Exhibition And Installations

CURRENTLY on View

DETROIT ARTISTS MARKET ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS AND EXHIBITION

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DETROIT MICHIGAN

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MARCH

2023

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In 2023 the Detroit Artists Market focused on students from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Among the exhibiting finalists, I was selected Best in Show and received one of the John F. Korachis Scholarships.

CURRENTLY on View

“METAMORPHOSIS” at CHUNG|NAMONT

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San Francisco

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September

2021

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From the gallery website:

From the confines of the physical world, Anna Bogatin Ott and Martin Venezky extract tangible elements to build a new plane of existence that is familiar and fantastical at once; their works transcend the conventional notion of photography as an emanation of reality. Both artists abstract materiality into other-worldly realms with their own aesthetical language and structures.

Venezky uses physically scavenged pieces of metal, glass, plastic and toys to form his series “The New Machinery.” As still-lives modeled and sculpted by complex lighting, these extraordinary compositions are transformed into machine-like objects straight out of science fiction. Their stark, black and white presence contrasts with Anna’s colorful representations. Both bodies of works energize an invigorating dialogue in the ever-evolving medium of photography.

CURRENTLY on View

INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHY POSTER EXHIBITION

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Hangeul Culture and Arts Festival, Ulsan, South Korea

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2021

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As an invited artist, I designed this large A0 poster for the International Typography Poster Exhibition. This year's theme was “Letter and Image.”
My poster is titled ZZZZRRHU (Feeling Better). Last year's gloom gives way to a colorful shimmering optimism. But wait... is adding glitter on top of nonsense a sign of hope or deceipt?

CURRENTLY on View

PUDDING: DESIGN & MUSIC

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

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APRIL 8 – 18

2021

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James Chae, a South Korean designer and educator, organized an exhibition concerning the intersection of music and design. Each participant listened to the same 45-minute instrumental composition and then responded to it with a poster design. I opted for a trio of posters each based on a 15 minute passage of the music. Chae also published the first issue of Pudding Magazine which showcased the works in the show plus portfolios and articles about each of the participating artists.

CURRENTLY on View

WITH EYES OPENED: CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART SINCE 1932

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CRAMBROOK ART MUSEUM

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JUNE 18 – SEPTEMBER 19

2021

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A selection from my New Machinery series was included in the expansive survey exhibition With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932. The exhibition, curated by museum director and Cranbrook alumnus Andrew Blauvelt, filled the museum’s galleries with over 250 works representing all periods of all departments at the Academy. The exhibition included a monumental and definitive catalog and history of the school’s impact and accomplishments.

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LETTER & IMAGE: TYPOGRAPHIC ODYSSEY

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GALERIA RETROAVANGARDA, WARSAW, POLAND

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November 9 – 30

2021

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The International Typography Poster Exhibition, organized by Chang Kim in Ulsan, South Korea, has traveled to Galeria Retroavangarda in Warsaw, Poland. The exhibition, retitled “Letter & Image: Typographic Odyssey,” includes my poster, ZZZZRRHU (Feeling Better), the first time my work has been shown in the country of my ancestry.

CURRENTLY on View

CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY

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Chicago IL

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2020

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“We Have Been Where You Are Going,” a collaborative project with Barbara Levine, exhibited a part of the gallery’s Control+P series.

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BAY AREA CURRENT(LY)

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San Francisco Photo Alliance

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2020

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The biannual Bay Area Currents moved online for 2020.
My newest work for The New Machinery series was featured in the exhibition.

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THE NEW MACHINERY IN THE NEW GARDEN (@Martin needs to edit)

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Delta Dental Corporate Headquarters, SF, CA

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2020

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CURRENTLY on View

CAMERAWORK GALLERY

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Portland OR

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January

2019

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Nineteen prints from The New Machinery were exhibited at the Camerawork Gallery.

CURRENTLY on View

UNDISCLOSED IMAGE

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Oklahoma City University

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March

2019

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From exhibition website:

This exhibition features five contemporary artists whose work questions and extends photography in surprising ways. The exhibition’s title is a nod to the influential book The Edge of Vision by Lyle Rexer, which presents numerous artists working at the boundaries of lens-based practices. In this time of ubiquitous images and familiar pictures, these artists find novel pathways to meaning through invention, play, and subversion of the medium’s long held conventions.

CURRENTLY on View

TWENTY YEARS OF FORM STUDIO

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San Francisco CA

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April

2019

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In 2019, my class, “Form Studio” celebrated its twentieth anniversary as a key component of my teaching and philosophy. What began as an experimental undergraduate elective at California College of the Arts (CCA) has since become a cornerstone of our graduate studio curriculum. The exhibition, curated and designed by Martin Venezky and Jon Sueda at San Francisco’s Institute of Advanced Uncertainty, gathered together student work, sets of materials used in the teaching, and included a program of lectures and demonstrations.

CURRENTLY on View

DELTA HEX ( @Martin needs to edit)

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Delta Dental Headquarters, Oakland CA

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2018 – 2020

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THE CENTER FOR FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

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Fort Collins CO

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September

2018

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Untitled No. 21 from “The New Machinery” was selected as part of the exhibition, “Abstract,” opening  November 2018 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Big thanks to juror Elizabeth Houston from Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York.

CURRENTLY on View

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

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San Francisco State University

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November

2018

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“What I Know About Photography,” designed and curated by Jon Sueda at San Francisco State University, surveys the full extent of my personal photographic journey. The exhibition reaches all the way back to my very first camera, my own photographic re-education at Cranbrook, my collected vernacular snapshots, wall installations, constructions, and the ongoing series, “The New Machinery.”



It was a terrific honor to see all of this history gathered together, reconnect with friends and colleagues from both design and photography, and consider this as a launching pad for further exploration. Currently in the works is a full catalog of the exhibition, designed and edited by Jon Sueda and featuring contributions from a roster of insightful thinkers and writers.

Jon Sueda also edited, designed and produced this 144-page catalog. As Sueda describes it, “the exhibition aims to highlight a parallel practice, investigating how a designer can have multiple lines of inquiry during a career that can not only be woven together, but appreciated in proximity to one another. The book includes over 100 images made between 1991 to the present, including snapshots, found photography, collage, and his most recent body of work titled ‘The New Machinery.’” The book includes a series of interviews, conversations and essays by Rudy Vanderlans, Andy Mattern, Jon Sueda and Emily McVarish.

CURRENTLY on View

BAY AREA CURRENTS

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San Anselmo CA

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2018

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Bay Area Currents is a juried exhibition sponsored by San Francisco’s Photo Alliance. An image from my series The New Machinery was selected for inclusion.

CURRENTLY on View

THE NEW MACHINERY AT SFO

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San Francisco International Airport

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2018

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The New Machinery made its wide public debut at the San Francisco International Airport in 2018. Curator Kai Caemmerer selected eight images from my ongoing series to feature in one of Terminal 3’s pre-security galleries. The exhibition is on display from July 12 through October 18, 2018. You can read the SFO press release here.

CURRENTLY on View

THE CENTER FOR FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

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Fort Collins CO

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July

2018

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The New Machinery No. 24 was selected by juror Jean Dykstra for the Center for Fine Art Photography’s  exhibition “Wonder.”

CURRENTLY on View

EVERY CORNER VIBRATES LIKE ART

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San Francisco Arts Commission, Grove Street Gallery

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2017 – 2018

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Every Corner Vibrates Like Art is the final work to be shown at the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Grove Street Gallery. Composed of hundreds of individual 4x6 color prints plus a selection of larger black & white images, this work is put together with push pins on four 4ft x 8ft easels. The work was installed in the four street level windows of the gallery to announce its closing and the opening of SFAC’s new gallery a few blocks away.

CURRENTLY on View

KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUTE ( @Martin needs to edit)

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Kansas City MO

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2017

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Student Collaboration on an 8ft x 24ft photo installation

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“A SONG! A SONG!” at SOMARTS GALLERY

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San Francisco

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March

2014

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A Song! A Song!, installed at San Francisco’s SOMArts Gallery was commissioned by Jon Sueda as part of his “All Possible Futures” exhibition. The free-standing wall collage measures 10’3″ tall x 7’6″ wide and is composed of digital photoprints adhered to the wall with pushpins. All the photographs were created in-camera using ordinary materials stockpiled in my studio: glass, paper, plastic, and so on. Up to this point my photo  work had been confined to my own studio walls or created exclusively for design projects. This is the first time I had created a wall like this for the public, and the first time all of the photographs were made specifically for a single installation.

CURRENTLY on View

DROPS FROM A FAUCET INTO A POOL

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Adobe Headquarters, San Francisco

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2014

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ADOBE SYSTEMS invited me to install a massive 30-foot-long wall collage inside their San Francisco headquarters. The individual pieces were all taken from my collection of paper ephemera, photo and type studies, and print ephemera. There are even a few new pieces that I collected on my walks between my office on Bryant Street and the Adobe headquarters on Townsend Street, a few blocks away.

A short video documentary about the installation.

The full time-lapse of my wall collage installation.

CURRENTLY on View

RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY (@Martin needs to edit)

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Adobe Systems Corporate Headquarters, San Jose CA

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2014

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CURRENTLY on View

SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

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JULY – OCTOBER

2001

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Martin Venezky: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design was organized by Darrin Alfred, curatorial associate, and Aaron Betsky, curator of architecture, design, and digital projects.

CURRENTLY on View

NATIONAL DESIGN TRIENNIAL

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Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

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March – August

2000

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I was included in the first National Design Triennial, curated by Ellen Lupton, Donald Albrecht, and Steven Skov Holt.

CURRENTLY on View

A SONG! A SONG! (@Martin needs to edit)

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SOMArts Gallery, SF CA

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10ft x 7.5ft freestanding installation, curated by Jon Sueda for his exhibition, All Possible Futures

CV Highlights

ARTIST STATEMENT

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2023

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Abstract forms have stories to tell. I use the camera to make them visible.

Our eyes miss a lot. The things they behold are clouded by the names we give them. But things and words are not the same. The name is a category, an effect of ideology, preference, and prejudice. Names are learned far more easily than the beheld is truly seen.

A name is language. A name is an infection. Once learned, we must work hard to trip up our brain's regulating filters.

The camera can do this effortlessly. It sees better than we do.

The camera, however, has its own affliction. It invents relationships and priorities that are neither real nor present. But this handicap — this misreading — is what I love about photography. I enjoy the conspiracy among objects whose only real connections are proximity and juxtaposition.

My practice is fueled by drawing and photography, bringing together works on paper with objects and materials I've accumulated over many years. The drawings are raw and as unfiltered as I can manage. They have encouraged freedom within my body and, in so doing, have surprised my eyes. 

They are a gift.

These marks and the objects I choose come together slowly. I watch expectantly as each arrives to meet the others. But for the camera's cold eye, I cannot tell whether they will huddle intimately or explode into space.

The results reference an exterior world without depicting it. They remain abstract and yet involve real objects — plastic toys, frayed fabric, glass and metal. Humble and mute, these stray pieces have been used, disassembled, and discarded. But in front of the camera, they take center stage.

The camera is the director. Its way of seeing animates and inhabits these intersections. But I can't leave it there. I take responsibility and wrest back the controls to exaggerate or contradict the camera with elements from my digital palette. 

While I cannot help but find pleasure from evoking joy with my work (that's the designer in me), at the same time I hope to inflict dissonance and rupture, something Chris Fraser has referred to as “problems.” That's an apt word and one that anticipates a wider range of reactions from my audience. Can pleasure and disturbance be tethered together? That is what I'm testing in my most recent work. 

I hope what I present is felt and seen, rather than named and forgotten.

SOLO / TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

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(2023)
THE ROOM KEEPS MOVING WHEN I STAND STILL
Gallery A, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills MI

(2021)
METAMORPHOSIS: MARTIN VENEZKY & ANNA BOGATIN OTT
Chung | Namont Gallery, San Francisco CA 

(2020)
MARTIN VENEZKY: THE NEW MACHINERY
Camerawork Gallery, Portland OR 

(2020)
WE HAVE BEEN WHERE YOU ARE GOING
Collaborative work with Barbara Levine
Catherine Edelman Gallery Control+P series, Chicago IL

(2018)
MARTIN VENEZKY: THE NEW MACHINERY
San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3

(2018)
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY
DesignSpace Gallery, San Francisco State University

(2017)
EVERY CORNER VIBRATES LIKE ART
San Francisco Arts Commission, Grove Street Gallery

(2014)
RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY
Adobe Systems Corporate Headquarters, San Jose CA

(2013)
DROPS FROM A FAUCET INTO A POOL
Adobe Systems Headquarters, San Francisco CA

(2005)
RECLASSIFYING HISTORY VIII (COLUMBUS DATABASE)
Collaboration with Catherine Wagner
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco CA

2001
MARTIN VENEZKY: SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

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(2023)
UNBOUND12!
Candela Books + Gallery, Richmond VA

(2023)
DETROIT ARTISTS MARKET ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS AND EXHIBITION
Finalist and “Best in Show” recipient, John F. Korachis Scholarship
Detroit Artists Market, Detroit MI 

(2021)
WITH EYES OPENED: CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART SINCE 1932
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills MI

(2021)
PUDDING: DESIGN & MUSIC
WRM Space, Seoul, South Korea

(2020)
PHOTO ALLIANCE: Bay Area Current(ly)
Online exhibition

(2020)
UNDISCLOSED IMAGE
Norick Art Center, Oklahoma City University

(2018)
PHOTO ALLIANCE: BAY AREA CURRENTS
Smith Andersen North Gallery, San Anselmo CA

(2018)
ABSTRACT
The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins CO

(2017)
LENS CULTURE EXPOSURE AWARDS: JUDGE’S CHOICE
“We Have Been Where You Are Going,” in collaboration with Barbara Levine

(2014)
ALL POSSIBLE FUTURES
SOMArts Gallery, San Francisco CA

PUBLISHED WORK/SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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(2021)
WITH EYES OPENED: CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART SINCE 1932
Catalog accompanying the Cranbrook Art Museum exhibition features a spread of my work for Speak Magazine.

(2021)
EUROPEAN PHOTOGRAPHY 110
Portfolio presentation

(2021)
F-STOP: A PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE
Issue 105: The Constructed Image
February/March Group Exhibition

(2021)
PUDDING MAGAZINE 001
Design & Music
Published portfolio including The New Machinery and Abrasives series.

(2021)
AMERICA BY DESIGN: FAIL. HARD.
Episode 2 Podcast with Will Hall.

(2021)
CRAZY BIRD PODCAST
Episode 3: On staying observant, challenging yourself, experimenting and dipping into a new territory.
Podcast with Wioleta Kaminska

(2021)
LETTERFORM ARCHIVE
Salon Series 21: Martin Venezky

(2019)
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY
Catalog for 2018 exhibition. Designed and edited by Jon Sueda. Includes interviews and essays by Rudy Vanderlans, Andy Mattern, Jon Sueda, and Emily McVarish

(2019)
LENSCRATCH
June blog post by Aline Smithson features The New Machinery.

(2019)
BETA: DEVELOPMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
A portfolio of my New Machinery work appeared in Issue 32: July 2019

(2018)
AIN'T BAD
July 7, 2019 Photo blog post by Carson Sanders featured the Delta Hex photomural installation.

(2018)
SOME RECENT FINDINGS
Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography, curated and edited by Andrew Kensett, Assistant Curator, University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography under the title Take the Picture: Capture, Collect, Archive, Photograph. “The twenty-four artists represented in this portfolio consider two acquisitive potentials of photography: to collect visual records of experience and to produce objects that may themselves be collected and circulated.Their artworks constitute findings, both in the sense that their content is found, and that they represent new knowledge generated through experimentation.”

(2018)
HANT MAGAZINE
Three images from The New Machinery included in Issue No. 11, “Back to Reality.”

(2018)
F-STOP MAGAZINE
Issue 89: Altered Image

(2017)
LENSCULTURE EXPOSURE AWARDS
Judge's Choice Award for “We Have Been Where You Are Going,” a collaboration with Barbara Levine.
A separate LensCulture entry on the winning series.
And inclusion in the Best of LensCulture, Volume 1.

(2017)
AIN'T BAD
December 28, 2017. Online photo blog post by Carson Sanders featured “We Have Been Where They Are Going,” a collaborative project with Barbara Levine.

(2017)
AIN'T BAD
May 10, 2017. Online photo blog post by Taylor Curry featured the series The New Machinery.

(2017)
TYPOGRAPHICS 2017
Designing a Process for Design.
Conference presentation recorded for YouTube.

(2017)
ELEPHANT MAGAZINE
Studio visit and interview blog post by Robert Urquhart.

(2016)
ELEPHANT MAGAZINE, Spring, Issue 26
“Silicon Valley versus Creativity,” by Robert Urquhart.

(2015)
THROUGH PROCESS
Podcast with Professor Mitch Goldstein at RIT

(2014)
MARTIN VENEZKY: ADOBE WALL COLLAGE
Short documentary created for Adobe Systems San Francisco.
Available on YouTube.
Full time lapse.

(2014)
7X7 MAGAZINE
“Best of Design: The Year’s Top Office Makeovers Airbnb Abodes, and More” by Sarah White.

(2012)
7x7 MAGAZINE
“Exposition: Four Experts in the Art World Cull a Portfolio of the Bay Area’s Finest Talents,” by Julia Flagg, et al

(2012)
FELT & WIRE
“Type is Alive in this Letterpress Poster,” by Tom Biederbeck
“Martin Venezky Listens to the Sound of Type,” by Tom Biederbeck
“Creative Chain: Connecting Creatives One Link at a Time,” by Emily Potts

(2011)
TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGN: FORM AND COMMUNICATION
Rob Carter, Ben Day, et al

(2011)
DESIGN MATTERS
Podcast with Debbie Millman

(2005)
IT IS BEAUTIFUL... THEN GONE
Monograph published by Princeton Architectural Press.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

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CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
San Francisco CA
(2016 – present) Professor, MFA in Design
(2009 – 2016) Associate Professor, MFA in Design
(1993 – 2016) Adjunct Professor

KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUTE
Kansas City MO
(2014 – 2017) Joyce C. Hall Distinguished Professor of Design

CALIFORNIA INSTITUE OF THE ARTS (CALARTS)
Valencia CA
(2005 – 2007) Adjunct Professor

ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN
Pasadena CA
(2005 – 2007) Adjunct Professor

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN
Providence RI
(2003 – 2004) Assistant Visiting Professor

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
New Orleans LA
(2009 – 2012) Visiting Artist, Design Department Assessor

ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTER
Snowmass Village CO
(2008) Visiting lecturer: Design, Photography, Alternative Processes

INTERNATIONAL DESIGN CENTER
Nagoya Japan
(2002) Workshop: “Invisibile InBetween Behind Underneath”

FABRICA
Treviso, Italy
(2001) Visiting Artist

EDUCATION

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(2022 – 2024)
CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
Bloomfield Hills MI
MFA in Photography

(1991 – 1993)
CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
Bloomfield Hills MI
MFA in Design

(1975 – 1979)
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Hanover NH
BA in Visual Studies

Contact

royal oak   michigan
415.533.3831