The only child of a university art professor and a freethinker mother, Cade Martin grew up surrounded by shapes and images. His love of the arts grew out of summers filled with trips to galleries, museums, and art studios. Sculptors, writers.and painters paraded through his childhood, forming his appreciation for the candid beauty found in people from all walks of life.
As a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, Martin picked up his first camera for a basic photography class. Nurtured and supported by family and teachers he was empowered to pursue the idea of a life lived through adventure and creativity. After graduation, and an influential assistantship, Martin lit out on his own, and was fortunate soon after to work on a project hopping trains for National Geographic on the Great Indian Railway.
Propelled by the belief that one must keep looking for the beauty in the unfamiliar, and an insatiable thirst for adventure has taken him around the globe on assignment for a wide variety of brands - from Starbucks to Target, FDA to NPR.
Martin has also been hailed as “one of the 200 best advertising photographers in the world” by Lürzer’s Archive and his award-winning work has been described as “inspirational and magical — of elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary with a cinematic touch.”
His personal photography projects follow a common thread from his commercial work, telling peoples stories be it through the architecture of their faces or the costumes they wear. His 2018 project, Character, Not Characters, a tattoo portrait
series, was recently shown at the O Museum in Washington DC. And Martin’s collaboration with designer Antonio Alcalá of Studio A has his images on four upcoming 2020 Forever Stamps from the United States Post Office, celebrating the contribution of Hip Hop to American culture.
His 2019 mixed-media collaboration with fine-artist Vincent Serritella can also be seen in their forthcoming exhibition [ee-kwuh-lib-ree-uhm].
Cade Martin is based in Washington DC, but keeps a bag packed for the next assignment. He can also still be found in a movie theatre or with his nose in a comic book.
Vincent Serritella was born and raised in Miami Florida, a city steeped in rich heritage and cultures. As a child he was drawn to artistic expression, fascinated by its ability to connect him to family and friends, painting his first real canvas at the age of ten.
Young Vincent was also often seen dressed as a ninja, climbing trees and throwing firecrackers; he was also the neighborhood artist who would paint graffiti-style work on other kids' boom boxes, skateboards, bikes, ramps and clothes. Art fostered purpose and it kept him out of trouble. Mostly.
After graduating from the acclaimed New World School of the Arts in Miami, where his appreciation for detail revealed through all creative disciplines was ignited, Vincent went on to study at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, under narrative painter Raoul Middleman, and later received his BA in fine art at The Cooper Union in New York City studying under abstract expressionist Don Kunz and experimental filmmaker Robert Breer. What Serritella wanted to say and show to the world was never meant to stay just on a canvas, the promise and possibility of blurring genres and creating - unbound by artistic boundaries, though buttressed by classical artistic techniques – a calling card of his diverse body of work.
Serritella’s art has been included in various exhibitions including “Ruminations On Pop Art” at Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco, CA; "L'Art de vivre” at Chateau L'Hospitalet in Narbonne, France; “Water Rites” at The Audrey Love Gallery in Miami, Florida; and "Young Latin Contemporaries" at Nassau County Museum of Art, Manhasset, NY. Beyond his work on canvas, Serritella presented his Webby Awards Honoree winning project, “Project 365” at The Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, CA, which has been published and awarded Outstanding Book of the Year: Arts Craftsmanship by the IPPY Awards and winner of the USA Best Book Awards in art.
In addition, Serritella is featured in the web documentary series “Visionaries: Artistic License" by Lexus International. Serritella’s work can also be seen in the forthcoming exhibition [ee-kwuh-lib-ree-uhm] in collaboration with photographer Cade Martin.
Serritella currently lives, and creates and still climbs the occasional tree in the San Francisco Bay Area.