Martyna Alexander is a Detroit-based artist, illustrator, and graphic designer that spent her formative years exploring fantasy and sci-fi through anime/manga, graphic novels, and movies. Her work as an artist is mostly abstract painting but has often come back to fantasy and sci-fi in the personal illustrations she makes privately in her free time or when sick. Though she is an experienced artist - having shown work in galleries in Detroit, Tokyo and Spain, this is her first time showing her illustration work in an exhibition setting. "I felt like this genre of work has been taking care of me and teaching me about the world since I was young and continues to today and I wanted to give it the space and appreciation that 'fine art' work typically gets. On a larger scale, these genres have been doing what fine art claims to do in an even more accessible way - they question our norms, they post challenges to how things exist, and they actually show examples of new worlds, ways of living, forms of consciousness that aren't boxed in by what we already experience. There are no limits, and we should revel in that ability to explore.

Martyna’s work will be gracing the walls of Vault Detroit, beginning with a reception on July 8th at 7pm!