Take a ride around Philadelphia and you’ll find buildings and walls adorned with colorful creations that reach the sky. The city of brotherly love prides itself on its plethora of murals and public artwork that not only bring new life to the neighborhoods they’re in, but aid in telling the story of the historic city. Whether it be the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters mural located in North Philadelphia or the infamous West Philly Tuskegee Airmen mural—the city has art to share in abundance. Helping celebrate the city’s history and pioneering the public art movement is Ernel Martinez. An artist and visionary bringing beauty and accessibility to the streets.
Since 2003, Ernel Martinez has helped produce and create several public art murals throughout the city of Philadelphia, including but not limited to the Mural Arts Malcolm X on Ridge and Diamond Ave, Why We Love Coltrane on Diamon Street, Ed Bradley on Belmont Ave and His Heart of a Champion: A Tribute to Smokin’ Joe Fraizer on Alleghany Ave. Keeping in line with his passion for public art, Ernel is also a founding member of Amber Art and Design, a collaborative arts organization that works with different communities to create public artworks that tell a story. As a public art creator, Ernel does not fall prey to the prestige of the title “artist.” Instead, he stays focused on the mission by reminding himself who his art is for.
“My work is for folks who could be on a SEPTA bus or SEPTA train (Philadelphia’s public transportation) or folks who are just walking by. They engage with it in a different kind of way. They don’t have to go out of their way, it’s in their public space. It’s in close proximity to where they live, where they work and where they exist,” Ernel told THE BLOCK.
While there is still so much to expect from the local art provocateur, Ernel ain’t new to the game. In fact, by the time Ernel was in sixth grade, he’d already completed and collected a few murals under his belt.
Born in Belize and brought up in Detroit and Los Angeles, Ernel’s journey into the arts started at a young age. As a child in elementary school in South Central, Ernel’s fascination with public arts was fostered by his friends and community who’d turned him on to graffiti.
“I had a friend named Juan Martinez that was an artist, he was a year old than I was and he did the graffiti thing. I always admired what he did. He was one of the best drawers in school. Just being competitive I was like, ‘I want to be like Juan or be better.’ He kind of was my first inspiration to do this art thing,” Ernel recalled.
Wanting to be in the mix with his friend, Ernel picked up graffiti and tagging—staple pieces of hip-hop and South Central culture at the time. But it wasn’t until later that he’d see the possibilities art could hold in his life.
“I didn’t know [being an artist] was a career probably until elementary school. My first experience really doing any form of artwork was in the sixth grade. We had an artist that came to our school and did a mural on our playground, and one of my teachers, was like, ‘Well this young man right here likes to draw.’
“I got to get out of a couple of classes to help this artist do their artwork on the playground, and I thought that was great. That was my first introduction to actually doing artwork,” he shared.
Now well into his career, Ernel is still painting and bringing his community along for the ride.
“At the end of the day, it’s really about sharing messages and communicating with other folks,” Ernel said.
Much of Ernel’s inspiration for his work comes from the communities he gets to work in and alongside. Taking inspiration from the history of Black and brown communities, Ernel makes sure his murals are equally uplifting as well as representational.
There’s a sense of pride in the ability to identify with the artworks and subject matter. If you’re a Black or brown person and you go to a museum, you don’t have that confirmation of your report in the large artistic context of history. [In] these major institutions where great efforts have been made for years to bring in Black and brown people into museums, the problem still persists. You go to the museum any day of the week, and you’ll hardly find people of color in the museum.
Ernel Martinez
“What I enjoy doing is representing those people in the murals,” he explained.
Understanding the history of excluding Black art and faces from museums, Ernel is one of many deconstructionists making art accessible outside of traditional spaces. In fact, no matter what Ernel may be doing, you can believe he’s not taking the traditional route.
“Given the opportunity to work for Mural Arts and other nonprofits, I was able to not only learn about the city but take some of my talents as an artist and try to beautify that city. Neighborhood by neighborhood, mural by mural, working along with people in the community and really trying to break away from everything that I was being told and taught at institutions and kind of forge a different way of being an artist,” Ernel said.
When asked about what he hopes his work will do for young creatives or for his community in the future to come, Ernel wants nothing more than to continue the mission he’s already started.
“As a Black artist, I just really see myself as a creative person who loves the community of Philadelphia, and wherever I can share my talents and uplift those communities, I try to do it.”
