About

Michelle Yi Martin is a San Francisco–based multidisciplinary artist whose practice merges weaving, sculpture, installation, and light. Rooted in the experimental legacies of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, her work explores material memory, perception, labor, and systems of connection through intricate woven structures and immersive spatial environments. Drawing from textile traditions alongside contemporary architecture and design, Yi Martin creates works that shift between object and atmosphere, often transforming light itself into a woven medium. Alongside her studio practice, she continues her work as an educator, weaving together history, literature, and the arts with her students.

Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Jessica Silverman (2026); exhibitions at Shoshana Wayne Gallery and Bolinas Museum; Copenhagen Contemporary; Museum of Craft and Design; Arion Press; Minnesota Street Projects; 120710 Gallery; Monterey Museum of Art; Venetia Incentives; the Grove Collective in London; Artist Television Access; Berkeley Art Center; Round Weather; Nationale; Ovartaci Museum in Denmark; and the Textile Center in Iceland. Her work has also been featured as part of the Anni Albers exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art, at the Copenhagen Light Festival, and in a collaborative video installation on the Manhattan Bridge. In 2024, she installed a series of sculptures for Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center’s annual ReHappening.

Her work is included in the collections of the Bolinas Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Yi Martin completed residencies at Textílsetur Íslands in Blönduós, Iceland (2017); the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation (2019); and Space Program in San Francisco (2020). She received a grant from the Danish Arts Council to exhibit her work in Aarhus, Denmark (2019), and in 2023 she and her collaborator were invited to participate in the Craft and Design Biennale in Copenhagen, where they were named finalists. Yi Martin has been commissioned by Meta Open Arts and was awarded the commission for a permanent installation at San Francisco’s newly developed Pier 70, currently in development. She is a recipient of the 2025 Artadia Award and the Artadia SEEN Award, and will participate in a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in 2026.