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Fernando Martí

San Francisco, CA, United States

Fernando Martí is a printmaker, community architect, writer and poet based in San Francisco. His etchings, linocuts, screen prints, and constructions explore the clash of the Third World within the heart of Empire, and highlight the tension between inhabiting place / reclaiming culture, and building something transformative. He brings his formal training in architecture and urbanism to his public projects, including his altar ofrendas. Fernando studied architecture and urbanism at UC Berkeley, and has taught design studios at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Today, he works on housing issues as co-director of San Francisco’s Council of Community Housing Organizations. Originally from Ecuador, he has been deeply involved in San Francisco’s community struggles since the mid-90s, creating art for and with many local organizations, including the SF Print Collective, the Center for Political Education, PODER, and the SF Community Land Trust. His art and poetry can be found in an occasional 'zine entitled Amor y Lucha and on his Facebook Notes. One of his biggest frustrations is keeping his houseplants happy. He can be contacted at el_compay_nando at yahoo dot com.

Other Media

Gratitude for Nail Houses

Gratitude for Nail Houses

November 10, 2022

We think sometimes that cities are defined by their castles and towers, their highways and skyscrapers. But they are also defined by their exceptions: their nail houses and holdouts, scavenged…

They Want our Home

They Want our Home

November 11, 2021

They want our home. Our home. For themselves. They think they have a right to our home simply because they have more money. We are fighting it. The buyers knew…

Eviction and the Echoes of Colonialism

Eviction and the Echoes of Colonialism

November 8, 2021

Echoes of colonialism and dispossession, enacted in the daily rituals of eviction and speculation. In her eviction notice to us, Tatiana Omran writes that she has been saving to buy…

Gentrifier Grey

Gentrifier Grey

November 5, 2021

Living in San Francisco for close to thirty years, I am seeing more and more of steel grey painted over the houses of the city, slate grey, gentrifier grey. There’s…

Living in a strange time

Living in a strange time

November 2, 2021

“We’re living in a strange time / working for a strange goal / we’re turning flesh and body / into soul.” – The Waterboys Perhaps I have different attachment to…

Accessories to an Eviction

Accessories to an Eviction

October 31, 2021

It was beautiful to be with the monumentality of Yolanda’s work last week, her three women, her running women, her Guadalupes, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, ordinary…