Carolyn Jean Martin is an artist and educator whose work explores how philosophical and aesthetic traditions have shaped the construction of race and identity, particularly the representation of Blackness in Western art. Her research has been presented at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, University of California, Berkeley, Georgia Southern University, and the College Art Association.

Carolyn received an MFA in Painting and an MA in the History and Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. She earned a PhD in Visual Arts with a specialization in philosophy, aesthetics, and art theory, from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, where she was recognized as a David Driskell Fellow and received the 2024 Ted Coons Dissertation Prize.

She currently serves on the College Art Association Board of Directors as Vice President of Conference and Programming and is currently working on a book-length manuscript focused on Bay Area-based Black women artists and curators.


Photo by Sarah Deragon @ portraitstothepeople.com