FACADE: What Lies Beneath
October 17 - December 6, 2026
Artemizia Foundation Presents an Exhibition by Tucson artists Brandi Kole and Rock CYFI Martinez
About the Show
On Saturday, October 17, Artemizia Foundation's Gallery 818 opens FACADE, an exhibition featuring the work of two extraordinary multidisciplinary artists, Brandi Kole and Rock CYFI Martinez. The artists, who are husband and wife, approach art through dramatically different materials and techniques, yet share a fascination with identity, memory, perception, and the stories we choose to reveal - or conceal.
A facade is what we present to the world. It can be a mask, a protective layer, a carefully constructed identity, or simply the face we want others to see. But what lies beneath that surface? And how much of what we see is actually the truth?
These are the questions at the heart of FACADE.
Brandi Kole creates intricate mixed-media artworks using textiles, embroidery, painting, and found materials. Quilts, lace, doilies, and discarded fabrics become the foundation for compelling images that explore gender, identity, memory, and the complexities of personal experience. Her work transforms familiar domestic materials into something unexpected, often combining portraiture and abstraction to create faces and figures that appear fragmented, layered, or partially obscured.
There is something particularly fascinating about Brandi's process. Materials that already carry their own histories become part of a new narrative. Nothing is quite what it first appears to be.
Rock Martinez, known professionally as CYFI, comes from an entirely different artistic tradition. With more than two decades of experience as a graffiti writer and muralist, Rock brings the energy and visual language of the street into the gallery. Working primarily with aerosol paint, he builds complex compositions through layers of color, lettering, portraiture, and expressive gestures. His work explores culture, identity, community, and the visual history of our public spaces.
Where Brandi constructs her surfaces through fabric, thread, and accumulated fragments, Rock builds his through spray paint, bold imagery, and overlapping visual narratives. Both artists understand that a surface is never simply a surface. It can hold memories, contradictions, hidden meanings, and multiple versions of the same story.
What makes FACADE particularly compelling is the dialogue between these two artists. Their materials could hardly be more different, yet their artistic concerns are remarkably similar. Both challenge us to look beyond the obvious, to question our assumptions, and to recognize that what we see is not necessarily all that exists.
FACADE opens Saturday, October 17, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Artemizia Foundation's Gallery 818 in Bisbee. Both Brandi Kole and Rock CYFI Martinez will be present to meet visitors and discuss their work. The opening reception is free and open to everyone. Through Sunday December 6th.
We invite the community to join us for an afternoon of art, conversation, and discovery.
