A CREATIVE LIFE, 2023

Bio

The painter and sculptor Miguel Martinez-Riddle (MM-R) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
Learning to play classical music on the piano and french horn, and performing as a Flamenco
dancer were serious early creative pursuits begun around age six. In 1986 MM-R worked full-
time for a textile design company in the fashion district where he was taught how to paint
patterns using gouache. Many of the artists in the studio were formally trained painters and
introduced him to art. In the summer of 1991 as an undergraduate at SUNY Purchase majoring
in painting, MM-R was nominated and won a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting
and Sculpture. In the 1990's MM-R lived and worked in a loft on the south-side of Williamsburg,
and spent years developing his painting, showing with Richard Timperio at Sideshow Gallery. In
1999 MM-R earned an MFA in Painting from Hunter College, and moved into a carriage house
around the corner from the Brooklyn Museum. Over the years MM-R participated in many
museum and gallery exhibitions. In 2006 he moved to Borough Hall and painted in a small
converted storage space with 20' ceilings directly above a bar, teaching full time just across the
East River in Tribeca. In 2012 his studio practice moved into a spacious farmhouse in the rural
Catskill Forest Preserve.