Dylan Martinez — Pac- Man Ghosts For Sale

Martinez built his reputation on making people question what they're looking at. Hand-blown glass, rendered in the unmistakable forms from the original arcade game. The shapes are simple, almost cartoonish, but that's what makes them work. Pac-Man has been part of visual culture for nearly fifty years. Martinez doesn't need to reinvent it. He just needs to bring it into the room in the right material, and glass does something to these forms that plastic or resin never could. They catch light. They have presence. They feel permanent in a way the original pixels never were.

This is also a series where color does the heavy lifting. After years working primarily in clear glass, the Ghosts are bold and direct. Red, pink, blue, orange. Each piece is its own thing but they're clearly in conversation with each other, which is part of why collectors tend to want more than one.