Annika Marthinuss: Openshaw Artist in Residence
Annika Marthinuss - Is an anxious and autistic artist who works primarily with acrylic and oil paint, along with textiles and some collage elements. She graduated with her BA in art education from The College of New Jersey and is currently pursuing her MFA in studio art at Maryland Institute College of Art. As someone who struggles with verbal language, she considers the canvas absorbing herself and taking what she can’t communicate in words and translating it into a visual language.
My work is a part of me, a self-portrait of sorts, though not always directly. I explore interiority and exteriority in emotions and persona. How a person looks on the outside is not how they appear on the
inside always. I am also interested in masking and camouflage, and how parts of myself remain
hidden. I like layering these hidden and exposed parts on top of each other through moments of
collage and glazed layers of paint.
Isolation is also an important part of my work - autism and
mental health issues can feel so isolating and difficult to interact with the world. My hope is that
by being vulnerable about my identity, others can relate to the experiences of feeling like an
outsider, in whichever way that may present itself