Venazir Martinez is a Filipino visual anthropreneur, and a street muralist. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines Baguio. She was awarded Best Thesis through her art and advocacy entitled Hila-bana. This street art hunt challenged the public's visual perception through cultural emblems to revitalize Filipino ancestral heritage.

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The initiative known as Project Hila-bana gained prominence in 2018 in Baguio City, Philippines. The project's name drew inspiration from the Filipino term "hilbanahan," signifying temporary stitching. The street art movement is unified by a red thread that serves as a visual guide for the public in search of our featured Filipino identities across the globe.

She is the visionary behind Sining Eskinita, a multi-sensory street art festival that transforms mundane alleyways into creative platforms—teaming up with The Search Mindscape Foundation, The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Davies Paints Philippines, and other private and non-profit organizations nationwide. She had reclaimed otherwise bland spaces and transformed walls with cultural themes that enliven the indigenous spirit. 

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She was invited for a week-long residency and solo exhibition of her work Hilabana: Espasyo Temporal at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University last October 2023 to celebrate Filipino American History Month. Followed by another solo showcase at the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco in January 2024.

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In April 2024, she collaborated with the Renaissance Entrepreneurial Center and SOMA Pilipinas in San Francisco, California, to create one of the largest murals entitled “Ani”  in the district as a cultural marker to commemorate the harvested hopes of the diasporic Filipino communities in the Bay Area.

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Martinez's creations are deeply influenced by the stories of people she encountered during her creative journey. Her artworks portray realistic depictions of individuals from diverse cultures, rendered in a fragmented and animated style. This approach, Progressive Abstract Realism, captures the intricate layers of our identities and the factors that have molded our fundamental values as a nation.

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Venazir's profound fascination with identity formation became her spiritual quest and life's purpose, compelling her to redefine the myriad meanings of "Filipino" by interweaving the red thread, one wall at a time.