Martín Wannam

Martín Wannam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His multidisciplinary practice critically engages with Guatemala's historical, social, and political landscape through photography, performance, and sculpture from a cuir perspective that intersects brownness and wildness.

His educational background includes:

• MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico (2020)
• Diploma in Contemporary Photography from La Fototeca, Guatemala (2016)
• BA in Graphic Design from Universidad Rafael Landivar (2015)

Wannam's research explores systemic structures, immigration impacts, utopian ideals, and family dynamics through a maximalist visual language that challenges mainstream narratives. His work interrogates belonging, identity formation, and visibility politics for marginalized communities—particularly LGBTQ+ populations in Latin America—by fusing traditional Guatemalan cultural imagery with contemporary cuir aesthetics. This creates transcendent visions of queer heterotopias that disrupt societal norms through radical self-expression and religious symbolism appropriation.

Wannam is actively involved with the Fronteristxs & Becoming Sticky Collective, advancing his commitment to freedom dreaming and dissident perspectives rooted in Guatemalan heritage. His practice consistently confronts heteronormative systems and religious discrimination while celebrating queer liberation through visual counter-narratives.