KIM MARTINDALE
For nearly five decades, Kim Martindale has produced some of the country’s most prestigious and successful art shows. He is inarguably one of the art world’s unparalleled experts in a number of important art genres. His detailed and sophisticated knowledge has made him a top choice resource for appraisals, advice on acquisition and selling, overall art market consultation, and high-end gallery management.
Martindale got an early start in the art world, helping to launch the immensely successful Whitehawk show when he was sixteen years old. After graduating from high school in 1979, his specific areas of interest led to intensive studies at various University of California campuses, as well as universities in Iowa, Japan, and Taiwan. His education continued with hands-on experience working for Sotheby’s Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
Proof that things come full circle, Kim Martindale now owns and produces the Whitehawk show, celebrating its 47th continuous year this August in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Martindale has a forty + year track record of producing some of the most acclaimed art shows in the country. Working as a formative partner in establishing the official designation of January as Los Angeles Arts Month, he went on to create and produce the first 25 years of the LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, one of the most prestigious art shows in the world. He also served as a past co-chair (with Ron Hartwig of the J. Paul Getty Trust) of the Los Angeles Arts Month Committee.
His career path has also led to his involvement in a succession of groundbreaking shows in Santa Fe, New Mexico, including the Ethnographic Art Show, Winter Antiquities Show, the Summer Antiquities Show, and the Old West Show. Martindale’s accomplishments also include the Tribal Art Show, held in association with the Denver Art Museum, and the Scottsdale Antiques and Fine Art Show, Emerging Artists, and ARTscottsdale, all in association with the Phoenix Art Museum and Art and Antiques Magazine. In California, he produced the Santa Monica Indian Art Show, as well as the San Francisco show, Ethnic Visions.
Together with long-time partner John Morris, who passed in November 2023, Martindale co-produced the Objects of Art & American Indian/Tribal Santa Fe. Since 2010, they also produced the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show and the American Indian Art Show/San Francisco, which celebrated a 38-year run. These San Francisco events now continue as online virtual shows. In 2022, Martindale had the honor of spearheading Indigenous Celebration NM 2022 (IC22) alongside JoAnn Balzer, Bill Butler, Felipe Colon, and George Rivera in this new overarching marketing campaign uniting over 40 New Mexico-based art organizations.
Martindale also has had a proprietary interest in art galleries in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Venice, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He maintains the “private” KR Martindale Gallery in Marina Del Rey, California, offering (by appointment) an eclectic mixture of ethnographic art with an emphasis on contemporary paintings, Native American, Latin, and Asian art. He is a founding and current Board member of the Antique Tribal Arts Dealers Association (ATADA).
Kim Martindale is based in Los Angeles.