Liljana Mead Martin (b. 1986 Halifax; lives/works Vancouver) is an artist and environmental researcher working with material and media to explore embodied responses to environmental change. Her artwork explores themes of land degradation and highlight the speculative potential in hybrid adaptations. 

In recent solo exhibitions Geophilia (WAAP 2021) and Deep Thirst BioOrchestra (The Drake 2022), her works respond to land use and heat waves in the Pacific Northwest. Events which have created irriversible damage upon a delicate northern rainforest ecosystem. In the exhibition Negative [Space] Interface, her work explores housing development in the Wildlife Urban Interface zone, areas that are increasingly susceptible to forest fires, due to increased overdevelopment and lack of forest stewardship. Thermal mapping and it’s associated high chroma colour palette, is a reference point for artworks which also engage the body. Casts of ears, hands, arms and legs explore a sensorial perspective on attentiveness and survival. 

Martin received her MFA from Emily Carr University (‘16) and completed a BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (‘10).  Her work has been exhibited at The Klondike Institute for Arts and Culture (Dawson City Yukon Territory), Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto Island ON), CSA Space (Vancouver), Nanaimo Art Gallery (Vancouver Island), Wil Aballe Art Projects (Vancouver), Zalucky Contemporary (Toronto), NADA House Governor’s Island (NYC), and BIOMASS (worldwide).

Photo by Steven Cottingham.