Erik Martinson (Canada/Latvia) is an independent curator and writer living in London, UK. He worked in Toronto at Vtape, a not-for-profit video art distributor, from 2005-2014, and was a member of the Pleasure Dome curatorial collective from 2006-2014.

Education: BA in Film/Media from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada (2004); and MFA Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK (2016).

Selected projects hosted at: Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2015); Chalton Gallery, London (2016); LUX, London (2016, 2017); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2016); online at Cosmos Carl – Platform Parasite, with Gailė Pranckūnaitė (2017); The Ryder, London (2017); Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths Series (2017); Close-Up Film Centre, London (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Process Experimental Film Festival, Riga (2018); Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (2018); North Norwegian Art Centre, Svolvær, with Torill Østby Haaland (2019); Cubitt Gallery, London (2019); Lofoten International Art Festival, Svolvær, with HÆRK (2019); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2019); Rupert, Vilnius (2019); Baltic Analog Lab, Riga (2019); Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2020); and online at History of Joy Part 4, with Sandra Kosorotova, via Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre Riga, and Tallinn Art Hall (2021).

Selected publishing: assistant editor for the Nuclear Culture Source Book (edited by Ele Carpenter), Black Dog Publishing in partnership with Bildmuseet and Arts Catalyst (2016); three texts in the Baltic Triennial 13: Give Up the Ghost Catalogue, CAC/Cura (2018); and a text in the 5th Anniversary Publication, Rupert (2019).

Conference papers: Folk Horror in the 21st Century Conference, Falmouth University, Penryn, UK (2019); Contemporary Folk Horror in Film and Media Conference, Leeds School of Arts and Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK (2021).

Residencies: Rupert, Vilnius, Lithuania (2016); inaugural curator in residence at the film/art school Nordland Kunst og Filmhøyskole in Kabelvåg, Lofoten, Norway, in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London (2018/2019); and PAiR Residency with João Laia, VV Foundation, Pāvilosta, Latvia (2021).

Participated in: Independent Curators International (ICI) Curatorial Intensive on Time-Based Media, New York (2013); the Oberhausen Seminar at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2014); the selection jury for Videonale.15 at Kunstmuseum Bonn (2015); and the Inter-format Symposium Along Lines at Nida Art Colony (2017).

Support received: Inaugural Stuart Croft Foundation Special Projects Award (2017), Canada Council for the Arts (2018 and 2020), and Arts Council England Emergency Response Covid-19 Funds (2020).