Sylvia Martins is a Brazilian born painter and printmaker whose work often incorporates soft pastels and impressionistic brushstrokes to create luminescent, dreamy images varying in subject matter from flora to woodland creatures to jewelry. Martins is constantly exploring and pushing herself in her artistic practice. Her work is a fundamental function that dictates her life. She says that "rules don't exist in my universe."

Martins attended the Art Students League in New York from 1979-83 as a student of Richard Pousette-Dart, from whom she learned the fundamental principle, "free yourself from the rules of space." Her work has been the subject of multiple international solo exhibitions at venues such as the Centro Cultural Correios in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Exhibit A in New York, the MOMA Contemporary in Fukuoka, Japan, and Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. It has also been included in group shows at Special Projects in New York, Galeria Anita Schwartz in Rio de Janeiro, Swatch Kaleidoscope in Paris, France, and Athens, Greece, the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado and Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Saíµ Paulo, Brazil. Martins currently divides her time between New York and Rio de Janeiro.