Emma Álvarez Marty (2000, Madrid) is a visual artist, researcher and curator based in Spain. Her work delves into situated research, imagining alternative ways of relating to ecosystems, drawing on the living archive alongside science and activism. She explores how artistic practice impacts and alters the territory, highlighting the importance of gesture as a tool for ethics and regeneration.
Through minimal interventions and experimentation with matters sourced from altered environments, she creates works that make normally imperceptible processes visible, transforming artistic practice into a space for observation, listening and critical reflection.
Marty combines her artistic practice with curating and cultural management. Her curatorial practice shares with her artistic work a concern for creating spaces for encounter, reflection and dialogue between different forms of knowledge and approaches to the contemporary image. Since 2023, she has been a member and coordinator of El Local, an independent space for photography and contemporary imagery in Madrid. Together with Ignacio Navas, she co-founded and coordinates ENLACES, a programme that introduces the Spanish art scene to international curators through private viewings and meetings at El Local. She also co-funded and coordinates SIMPATIZANTES together with Johana Luna, a programme created to foster encounters and conversations around themes that intersect art, ecology and displacement. At the same time, since 2024, she has been coordinating La Embajada alongside Ignacio Navas and Jonàs Forchini, an independent platform to promote projects created within the Spanish context, active during the Rencontres d’Arles Festival in France, supported by the Photography and Image Platform and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. She has curated the exhibitions 'Re-Connecting Satellite' (New European Bauhaus × TAI University, 2024), 'Lo que el Agua nos dice' by Deneb Martos and Ana Paes (El Local, 2025) and '¿No es eso típico de mí? | Ain´t that just like me?' at the OFF programme of the PhotoEspaña Festival (El Local × Camara Oscura Art Gallery, 2026).
In the last years, she has collaborated with various art centres and festivals, including Intermediae Matadero, PhotoEspaña, PROYECTOR Video Art Festival, Paranapiacaba Photography Festival in Brazil, Mèdol Centre d’Arts Contemporaries in Camp Tarragona, Galeria Camara Oscura, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and E CA Espai d’Art Contemporani Riba-Roja de Túria in Valencia, among others.
Graduated in Fine Arts and holder of a Master’s degree in Artistic and Documentary Photography (TAI University – URJC), she is currently pursuing a PhD in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid and is a member of the IMPACT research group in the Department of Design and Visual Communication. As an educator, Marty has been a teacher at the Master’s programme in Artistic and Documentary Photography at TAI University.
She is also involved in environmental activism and has been a member of Fridays For Future Madrid (FFF), Proyecto Verde Colmenarejo and Verdemorillo.
CV
Education
2024/act. PhD. Complutense University of Madrid - UCM. Member of the IMPACT research group.
2022/2023 Official Master's Degree in Artistic and Documentary Photography, Escuela Universitaria de Artes TAI, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid. Spain.
2018/2022 Expert Degree in Digital Design and Visual Production, Escuela Universitaria de Artes TAI, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid. Spain.
2018/2022 Official Degree in Fine Arts, Escuela Universitaria de Artes TAI, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid. Spain.
Exhibitions
2025 As Tranquil as Can Be. Curated by Ananta Mandal and Moomal S. Svojas Chari (Raqs Media Collective). Serendipity Arts Festival. The Old GMC Building Complex. Panaji, Goa. India.
2024 Lazos, collective screening during Freezer International Photography Festival. Casa Unclan & El Local. La Plata / Madrid.
2023 Colaborative exhibition "Uma `carta´ entre o sul e o norte". El Local + Paranapiacaba Photography Festival. Brazil.
2023 Síntesis aditiva. Curated by Fosi Vegue. Galería Nueva. Madrid. Spain.Fairs and festivals
2025 ArtsLibris. ARCO 2025. Madrid. Spain.
2024 Art Photo BCN (with El Local, thanks to the support of DiGood Collection). Disseny Hub. Barcelona. Spain.
2024 ArtsLibris. ARCO 2024. Madrid. Spain.
2023 MAPS. Getxophoto. Student representing the Escuela Universitaria de Artes TAI (URJC). Basque Country. Spain.
2022 Kosofoto. BFOTO Festival. Barbastro. Spain.
2022 Cosecha´22, Fiebre PhotoBook Festival. Palacio de cristal de Cibeles. Madrid. Spain.
2022 WeNow, Young Artists & Creators. Photography. Círculo de Bellas Artes. Madrid. Spain.
2022 WHITE BALANCE. Alcobendas Art Center. Madrid. Spain.
2022 Descubrimientos PhotoEspaña 2022 (25 anniversary).
2021 GENIAL ARTS - International Week of Young Artists and Creators of Madrid. Círculo de Bellas Artes. Madrid. Spain.
Grants, mentions, cultural management and art curatorship
2025 Management of the Self-Publishers' Table (with El Local). Fiebre Photobook Fest XII. La Casa Encendida. Madrid. Spain.
2024 Curator for the exhibition Re-connecting Satellite Event, New European Bauhaus. TAI (URJC). Madrid. Spain.
Conferences and teaching
2025 - 2026. Teacher on the Master´s Degree in Photography in the subject Artistic and Documentary Photography I at TAI University. Madrid, Spain.
2023 Lecturer at the subject of Critical Studies and Visual Culture of the University Degree in Photography and Audiovisual Creation in the session "Ecocriticism: how to understand the relationship between human beings and nature through art", TAI University (URJC). Madrid. Spain.
2023 Lecturer at the conference "El entorno del río Aulencia" with Carlos González-Amezúa for the Gregorio Peces-Barba Institute of Colmenarejo. Cultural Centre Manuel Entero of Colmenarejo, Madrid. Spain.
Publications
Press and Interviews
2023 'Río Aulencia: Claros y oscuros' solo show in Centro Cultural Manuel Entero of Colmenarejo. Clavoardiendo digital Magazine
CONTACT