SEIAA
Bobby C. Martin
Muscogee (Creek) artist and designer Bobby C. Martin was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in 1957. After an early career as a musician and recording studio owner, Martin turned to visual art and returned to school. He received a BA degree from Northeastern State University in 1992, and an MFA in printmaking from the University of Arkansas in 1995. While at Arkansas, Martin was awarded a Professional Development Fellowship from the College Art Association that led to his employment at Gilcrease Museum in 1995. While at the Gilcrease, Martin served as graphic design coordinator, where he created signage and various printed materials for publication.
In 2000, Martin received an appointment as Assistant Professor of Art at his alma mater, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. He was named Art Program Coordinator in 2003, and received a promotion to Associate Professor in 2005. In Fall 2008, Martin accepted a position of Associate Professor of Visual Arts at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he currently teaches printmaking and studio art foundations courses.
Martin’s artwork is exhibited and collected internationally. His work has been featured in exhibitions ranging from Who Stole the Teepee, a traveling exhibition organized by ATLATL and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, toSomething More Than ‘Art’: Handworks by American Indiansheld at the Utsunomiya Museum of Art in Japan. His work is in the permanent collections of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the Southern Plains Indian Museum, the Philbrook Museum and the Gilcrease Museum. His most recent body of new work is featured in a solo exhibition at the Oklahoma State Capitol, entitled Back in the Day.