The practice of American artist Nora Martin-Hall (b. 1988, Whittier, California) spans a range of artistic media and visual imagery dabbling in photorealism, illustration, sculpture and fabrication.
Forgoing art school in favor of a tattoo career, Martin-Hall credits two consecutive traditional tattoo apprenticeships starting at 16-years-old as an adequate art education. Seeing the once fringe medium of tattooing transition into mainstream, Martin-Hall exited the industry in her early 20’s to pursue a career in painting and sculpting.
Martin-Hall’s work is known for a quirky, playful aesthetic grounded in traditional representational painting and drawing. Nora mines a vast pool of personal interests ranging from Southern California culture and biology to drag queen aesthetics to make statements on consciousness, alternate realities, and identity.
Martin-Hall has exhibited work in Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Palm Springs, with works in private collections in the United States, Japan, Sweden, Canada, England, and Turkey.