Martin Machado was born in 1980 in San Jose, California. He received a BFA from UC Santa Barbara in 2003, and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007 . Machado's work has been shown internationally and has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Magazine, Juxtapoz, New American Paintings, and most recently The Surfer’s Journal.
Currently holding a USCG licensed 100 ton Master and an "AB" Able Bodied Sailor limited endorsement, Machado is a member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Kvichak Setnetters Association. In his years in the maritime industry, he has worked on a wide range of vessels, from a tall-ship and modern sailing charters, to commercial fishing boats, container ships and oil spill cleanup ships.
For over two decades Martin has had his feet in two very different endeavors, that of the art world and of the maritime industry. His labor on the water has taken him around the globe on international containerships, commercial fishing vessels, and sailing boats. The ports and the people he has worked alongside have become intertwined with the layers of his art, a visual story-telling that is based on his own experience, but reaches back to the history of maritime exploration and our core human connections to the sea.