Artist Shantell Martin’s Meditative Line Work Expands to Winterwear and the Boston Ballet

Last we wrote about Black creative Shantell Martin, whose work ranges from upholstery patterns for Momentum Textiles to a live-performance collaboration with Kendrick Lamar and a 2020 TED talk, she had covered the interior and exterior of an abandoned Governors Island chapel in her signature black-and-white graffitilike drawings, a commissioned public-art installation in New York. In the two years since, Martin has been prolific. Among highlights is The North Face x Shantell Martin collection, in which select pieces from the brand’s archival Search and Rescue line boast a design she made specifically for the collaboration. “It’s about climbing—challenging and expressing yourself in life,” the artist says. Expression is central to an upcoming project, too: Martin’s first-ever ballet. (She did, however, participate in New York City Ballet’s 2019 Art Series, filling the company’s Lincoln Center site with her towering canvases and framed pieces.) For Kites, performed by the Boston Ballet March 3-13 and one of five female-led world premieres in a series called ChoreograpHER, Martin has conceived not just the set design but also the costumes and the choreography. “I’ve spent the last couple of years,” she says, “learning how to apply my lines to movement.”