Below is an article written by Priyanka Sacheti for The International Museum of Women Blog about how my work is empowering women in the Middle East.

Corinne Martin: Empowering Change Through Art

Truly a multicultural by-product–having been born in Paris, raised in Beirut, educated in Houston, and now living in Riyadh–Corinne Martin interprets iconography of contemporary Arab pop culture derived from television, music, food, and fashion through her mixed media and paintings. She’s also very interested in the notion of the region being a meeting point between Western and Eastern sensibilities and the role globalization plays amidst that. “After returning to the Middle East, I was able to experience my roots both as an adult and as an artist from a fresh perspective,” she says. “The region is experiencing immense cultural growth and has a new, rejuvenating energy that inspires and infuses my work.”

I could not help but gravitate towards her retro-esque paintings of popular and iconic symbols of Arab pop culture. Having grown up and currently based in the Arabian Gulf myself, Martin’s work depicts an intensely, immediately familiar world of images, an integral part of my particular visual universe – for example, the imagery of Miranda or popular washing detergent, Tide [above] conveyed in Arabic script. “I’ve always drawn inspiration from those iconic images as they reflect the experiences of a younger generation of Arabs who came of age between the East and West,” Corinne says. “They have shaped our visual culture, which is why [my] kind of art resonates with so many people as it has an emotional connection to their past.”

By continuing to create pop art in Riyadh, Martin feels that she too is redefining the boundaries of what constitutes a woman’s role in the Gulf. “I feel that I am empowering young girls by exposing them to a new way of thinking and defining the world around them,” she says, elaborating that when these women see artists such as Corinne thinking outside the box, it gives them the courage to be individuals and creative agency to articulate their unique voices, unburdened by gendered expectations or stereotypes. “It’s a privilege to be part of this change and to have this opportunity,” she says.