He has organized art exhibitions, lectures, and auctions throughout the United States and Latin America, including South Florida, New Hampshire, Argentina, Panama, and Costa Rica.
His first major art event was a 1985 solo exhibition for the Haitian surrealist Jean Baptiste Rosvelt that Martinez sponsored and curated in the Metro Dade County Cultural Center.
In its first year the gallery secured a solo exhibition of leading Cuban painter and founding member of the GALA Group (Grupo de Artistas Latino-Americanos) Osvaldo Gutierrez.
[11] The exhibition, held in April 1992, featured 37 Latin American artists from Cuba, Costa Rica, Haiti, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, as well as from Spain.
[12] Marpad Gallery also held regular solo exhibitions for several leading Cuban artists including Josignacio (1991, 1993, 1995), José Mijares (1992, 1995), and Servando Cabrera Moreno (1995).
Based in Coral Gables,[18][19] the gallery also recruited noted Cuban literary figures including Nancy Perez Crespo, Jorge Valls,[20] Carlos M. Luis, Giulio V. Blanc,[21] Roberto Cayuso, Luis Lastra, Francisco Fernandez Rubio, Aldo Menendez, and Armando Alvarez-Bravo as writers and presenters for opening receptions, tours of new exhibitions, and catalogue content.
[22] As the main force behind the gallery, its exhibitions reflected Martinez's continuing passion for social and cultural themes that he felt did not receive adequate attention from the art establishment.
[25] Significant collective exhibitions held at Martinez's gallery included the 1998 showing titled Maestros de la Pintura Cubana del Siglo XX (Masters of Cuban Painting of the 20th Century) which featured the largest figures in the history of Cuban art until that time including Wifredo Lam, Victor Manuel, Amelia Peláez, Carlos Enriquez, Mariano Rodriguez and others.
[20][26][27] The following year the gallery organized a collective exhibition that focused on spotlighting emerging talent heading into the new millennium titled Future Visions (1999).
Martinez has also organized art events outside of South Florida, such as the lecture and exhibition Two Views of Cuba: From the Countryside to the City (2000) in the Sharon Arts Center of New Hampshire, featuring Esteban Alvarez-Buylla and Mario Garcia Portela,[43] as well as the 1995 exhibition Pseudo Museum in New York City (co-sponsored by Jupiter Interactive Productions) which was noteworthy at the time for its inclusion of pioneering online elements.
[45] Martinez then expanded his Cronicas de la Curaduria project into a book series that he authored and published through Interactive Fine Arts.
It features works by Wifredo Lam, Victor Manuel, Fidelio Ponce,[39] Mario Carreño, Carlos Enriquez, Mariano Rodriguez, Cundo Bermudez, Roberto Estopiñán, Servando Cabrera Moreno, José Mijares, Josignacio, Miguel Fleitas, Tomas Oliva, Carlos Sobrino, Hector Molné, Esteban Alvarez-Buylla, Marvin Chinchilla, Reynold Campbell, Jean Baptiste Rosvelt, Ulrich Gehret, Juan Navarrete, Clara Morerra, Arcadio Cancio and others.
[47] The Martinez Collection has lent works to several public art exhibitions hosted by Miami Dade College including Under a Brilliant Sun, Cundo Bermudez: into the 21st Century (2009, at the Freedom Tower Miami), 31 Escultores Cubanos (31 Cuban Sculptors, November 2009), the March 2009 MDC retrospective of Carlos Sobrino (1909–1975) marking 100 years since his birth, as well as MDC's March 2011 retrospective Roberto Estopiñán: Homage to a Great Master on His 90th Anniversary.
Other high-profile exhibitions that featured loans from the Martinez Collection included Mario Carreño: A Retrospective (January 1995) by Sotheby's in Coral Gables (sponsored by Bankers Trust) and Fidelio Ponce and his times/ Y su época (October–November 1992)[39] in the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture.
Works from the Martinez Collection are also featured on several books including El Oficio de la Mirada (1998)[53] and the artist monographs José Mijares: Paintings-Pinturas (1997),[54] Carlos Enriquez: the Painter of Cuban Ballads (2010)[55] and Mariano: Pintura y Dibuja 1935-1949 (Catálogo Razonado, Anexo al Volumen I).
Among them, Martinez has curated solo art exhibitions for: Victor Manuel,[23] Mario Carreño, Carlos Enriquez,[58] Servando Cabrera Moreno,[15] José Mijares,[25] Josignacio,[59] Osvaldo Gutierrez,[8] Clara Morera,[21] Nelson Franco, Arcadio Cancio,[60] Esteban Alvarez Buylla, Guillermo Spinosa, Mary Low Machado, Lesver de Quirós, Juan Navarrete, Hector Molné, Marvin Chinchilla, Reynold Campbell, Ulrich Gehret, and others.
Martinez also curated collective exhibitions that featured artwork by the following artists: Wifredo Lam, Amelia Peláez, Fidelio Ponce, Victor Manuel, René Portocarrero, Cundo Bermudez, Mario Carreño, Eduardo Abela, Esteban Chartrand, Leopoldo Romañach, Agustín Fernández, Rafael Soriano, Osvaldo Gutiérrez,[8] Domingo Ravenet, Domingo Ramos,[23] Ana Maria Sarlat,[42] Lia Galletti,[28] and others.