In his sharp, satirical paintings, Mauro C. Martinez reframes the visual language of contemporary digital culture—memes, censorship labels, and Instagram metadata—through the disciplined craft of representational painting. By merging the ephemeral with the enduring, Martinez both critiques and preserves the fleeting visual artifacts that define our online lives. Educated at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, Martinez has exhibited his work in both solo and group shows across the United States and the United Kingdom. His paintings offer more than ironic commentary; they interrogate the very mechanics of virality and visual consumption. By adopting the meme’s bite-sized mode of social critique, Martinez turns its flippancy into a tool for reflection, exposing society’s compulsive appetite for digestible, viral imagery. Martinez allows the visual character of his source material to inform his choice of medium and technique. For example, in his Sensitive Content series, he employs an airbrush to replicate the hazy blur of social media censorship filters. Conversely, the crisp clarity of his text-driven works demands the exacting precision of silkscreen printing. This adaptability underscores his nuanced understanding of both internet aesthetics and the physical demands of painting, positioning him as a translator between digital immediacy and analog depth.