Eddie Martinez was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1977, he spent his childhood in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in various states while growing up, including Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, and California. Afterwards, he returned to Brooklyn, New York to live and work. Although his grandfather was Puerto Rican, Martinez was an authentic American who did not speak Spanish despite having a Latino surname. A contractor who specialized in house painting, Martinez's father also served as little Eddie's artistic mentor. As a child, he worked alongside his father and became well-versed with painting. His curiosity about painting and his immersion in urban America full of graffiti culture had become the natural nourishment cultivating him to become an artist during his childhood.



Even though he does not come from an academic background, the art of Martinez comes with its own context. Inspired by popular culture, his early works tend to contain violent imagery of a crazy comics style repeatedly featuring figures with big shiny eyes, animals, clowns, skulls, resembling impromptu graffiti wall painting that is also a microcosm of the culture of the metropolis. His style gradually transformed into abstract paintings at a later stage. Art critics believe that his art belongs to the street art and the style of collage may be traced back to the traditional classics in the 1950's, is similar to a mix-and-match of pop art, performance art, abstract expressionism and the art of CoBra. "Each painting is a feast", that's how American artist and writer Ross Simonini describes the works of Martinez. For more than a decade, Martinez continued to challenge himself in art presentations, which could be a repetitive research of looking through a single composition without indulging in the same style. His bountiful creativity always amazes just like Picasso. Each one of his works is like an island of painting, or a garbage dump that carries the commonalities of contemporary culture while sharing the artist's self-identity, contemplation symbols and the accumulation of life experience.



Renowned individual and institutional collectors of Martinez include: Jordan's Abu Ghazaleh, who is well-known in the circle of world intellectual property rights, London insurance company Hiscox, the Saatchi Collection in London, Colección Júmex, which is the most important private contemporary art collector in Latin America, and the Marciano Collection of Los Angeles, USA.