Grounds For Sculpture Presents SHANTELL MARTIN: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Editor's Note:  We had the pleasure of attending the exhibition's opening reception on Thursday, September 17th.  We highly suggest our readers, young and old, take advantage of the opportunity to visit Grounds for Sculpture and engage with Shantell Martin's exquisite works in this marvelous and inspiring installation.

Explore the fleeting nature of time through murals, daily meditative practices and newly commissioned sculptures in “Shantell Martin: Past, Present, Future,” on view from September 20, 2026 through July 23, 2028 at Grounds For Sculpture (GFS). The immersive, site-specific installation features new work indoors and sculptures in the park’s gardens.

(Photo by Marina Kennedy)

The artist is known for her impactful and visually captivating work that often involves performance, philosophy, and linework. Self-exploration and continuous curiosity are key to her practice, and she invites viewers to join in a creative process that is as much about kindness as the act of creating.

“Shantell Martin’s works explore the meditative nature of artmaking with collaboration and playfulness,” shared Kathleen Ogilvie Greene, chief audience officer at Grounds For Sculpture and the exhibition’s curator. “This balance between curiosity, partnership and joy reignites the way GFS engages with many communities. The synergy is an exciting, authentic way to ground this exhibition within the GFS campus.”

By uniting artmaking with self-care and bringing art into the gardens, the exhibition underscores GFS’ pillars of art, nature and wellness. In the park’s West Gallery, there will be murals created onsite using a stream of consciousness process, along with the presentation of a new suite of work called the “Reply Card Project.” The “Reply Card Project” documents two years of Martin's daily drawing practice; it centers the idea that a little bit of anything, consistently, can have a large impact. These meditative moments capture her visual marks alongside the sounds of mark-making — breaths, sighs, and utterances along with narration and environmental atmosphere. While in the gallery, visitors will hear the audio and see a selection of drawings from the “Reply Card Project,” bringing both visual and audio markers from the past into the exhibition space. Outdoors, Martin’s work will be brought off the page into the gardens with her largest sculptures yet through a collaboration with Johnson Atelier. Johnson Atelier, which joined GFS last year, is an onsite high-tech art fabricator and restorer, which often functions as an extension of the artist’s studio.

Martin has a history of working with textiles and will continue her collaborative practice by working with the Princeton Sankofa Stitchers Modern Quilt Guild (PSSMQG) to create four large quilts that will be made by local partners and the GFS community. Formed by like-minded Black women, PSSMQG honors the legacy of African American quilting by sharing its traditions with the broader public. Using distinct thematic prompts created by Martin, PSSMQG will lead community participants in the creation of quilt blocks through a range of construction techniques, each tethered to personal reflections inspired by the exhibition. The quilts will be created between September 2026 and February 2027 with a public celebration of the completed work to be held in April 2027.

Artist prompts will invite guests to engage with the key exhibition themes of time, discovery, and play. In the gallery, visitors can pull from three towers of paper to make their own works inspired by prompts by Martin. The towers of paper will shrink and grow, reflecting the passage of time. Outdoors, words painted on select pathways invite visitors to reflect as they stroll through the sculpture park.

Martin performed live at the exhibition’s opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026 and will lead an evening on wellness in 2027.

“Shantell Martin: Past, Present, Future” is made possible by generous exhibition support from Katie Adams and Tony Schaeffer, Lauren and Scott Eder and Julie and Michael Nachamkin. Additional support is provided by the Brooke Barrie Art Fund and Marjorie Ogilvie.

Support is provided in part by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the New Jersey Department of State and a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Atlantic Foundation.

Grounds for Sculpture is located at 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, NJ 08619.  For more information, please visit Home Page - Grounds For Sculpture

Photo Credit: Lead Photo by Roshni Khatri