Walking down any concrete artery in Los Angeles, you may pass some of the elements and ideas in Patrick Martinez’s grand 7' × 16' abstracted landscape painting, Promised Land. A Pasadena and San Gabriel native, Martinez creates layered work that reflects his connection to the region and to the graffiti he grew up writing in the early ’90s with his crew, HDS (Hitting Dope Spots). As a teenager, he submitted his black book—a graffiti writer’s sketchbook that includes inscriptions and drawings—as a portfolio to the Visual Arts and Design Academy, a specialized art high school. At VADA, he met and became inspired by teacher and artist Mark Ayala. Like Ayala, Martinez went on to earn a degree from ArtCenter College of Design, which he graduated from in 2005 with a BFA.

Promised Land, like much of Martinez’s work, responds to his life in the city and its surroundings, and the disenfranchisement of people of color. It features images of pre-Columbian Cacaxtla battle warriors and painted palm trees, and incorporates other, more physical elements, like a fallen vinyl banner, geometric tiles, and neon signage. Through this mixture of materials, Martinez evokes a cultural environment that is constantly being destroyed, rebuilt, and gentrified. I spoke to him about the work at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles’s Chinatown.