Michelle Yi Martin (b. 1977, Seoul, South Korea) is a self-taught weaver based in San Francisco, California. Yi Martin has been an educator of the humanities, interdisciplinary art, and progressive education for over 20 years. She has developed an art practice in this intersection of history, human engagement, craft, experimentation, and fine art.
Yi Martin earned a BA in Classics from Santa Clara University, CA, and an MA from the University of San Francisco, where she became active in the Teaching for Excellence and Social Justice program. She completed residencies at Textilsetur in Blönduós, Iceland (2017); the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, CT (2019); and the Space Program in San Francisco (2020). As well, she received a grant from the Danish Arts Council to exhibit her work in Aarhus, Denmark (2019).
Most recently, she has exhibited at {Re}Happening at the historic Black Mountain College campus in North Carolina (2024); Copenhagen Contemporary in Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); Arion Press in San Francisco (2023); Ruth's Table in San Francisco (2023); the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco (2023); the Monterey Museum of Art, CA (2022); and Municipal Bonds in San Francisco (2021–2024).
Additionally, she has exhibited at the Textile Center in Iceland; Ovartaci Museum in Denmark; Nationale in Portland, OR; Round Weather in Oakland, CA; the Berkeley Art Center, CA; Venetia Initiatives in New York, NY; and Grove Collective in London, UK. She participated as a contributing artist at Black Mountain College in Asheville, NC. Yi Martin's experimental "weaving of light" was featured as part of the Anni Albers exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT (2020), and the Copenhagen Light Festival (2022). Her work with the artist collective ESG was featured on the Manhattan Bridge Anchorage in Dumbo, Brooklyn, as part of the Light Year installations (2021).
Yi Martin has been awarded commissions for permanent artwork installations by Meta Open Arts (2022) and San Francisco's newly developed Pier 70 (2024). In collaboration, she was a finalist for the Biennale for Craft and Design prize in Copenhagen (2023). She is represented by Municipal Bonds.