Daniel Luis Martinez: THE BLUEPRINT

Oct. 2 — Dec. 18, 2026 | SHED | Storefront 145

Daniel Luis Martinez: THE BLUEPRINT

October 2nd - December 18th, 2026

For architects, blueprints recall the pervasive method for reproducing technical drawings that endured for roughly eighty years. Between the mid-1870’s and 1950’s, architectural plans, sections, elevations, and details were drawn on translucent vellum. Copies were made by transferring the original drawings under UV light onto rag- or cotton-fiber paper sensitized with iron salt chemicals. The word blueprint, however, has endured well beyond its origins as a means of reproduction. It can describe any detailed plan to accomplish something or the ideal of a reproducible template.

This broader meaning was the subject of Jay-Z’s sixth studio album titled, “The Blueprint”, which was released on September 11th, 2001, and is regarded as one of the most important hip-hop records of all time. The album’s mining of deep cuts and mixing of musical genres was, according to Jay-Z, a tribute to the music that helped shape his identity. Soul and blues samples representing a condensed lineage of black musical culture were transferred onto new compositional and lyrical contexts, which provided a blueprint for invention.

For this exhibition, the blueprint is used as both a representational and conceptual departure point. Daniel Luis Martinez uses cyanotype printmaking and mixed-media drawing techniques as a generative process to imagine a speculative home on the CAMi campus. The hybrid drawings and prints featured in the exhibition explore the tactile middle-ground of the blueprint as a creative endeavor. The series employs orthographic conventions typical of architectural drawing sets, though not as precise instructions for building. Rather, a layered and loose approach expresses ideas of home as an architectonic language.

The individual works can also be understood as records of early design ideas that comprise a playlist (or mixtape, depending on your age). Lyrics to songs whose borrowed lines serve as themes and titles are embedded into each composition. Like the project, the track list is ongoing. Process models added to the space throughout the exhibit’s duration will explore tentative formal and material iterations in response to the drawings. The possibility of creative dwelling will evolve with each artefact made, not according to a predetermined blueprint, but as an improvisation in Prussian blue.

 About the Artist

Daniel Luis Martinez is a registered architect, educator, and co-founder of the multi-disciplinary design studio LAA Office, which explores the intersection of landscape, art, and architecture. His research and creative work investigate the potential of public art to generate alternative forms of placemaking. Daniel is currently Associate Professor and Director of Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program in Columbus, Indiana.

 Must Be You, the Door to Open, Mixed-media drawing and cyanotype print on bristol paper, 2026.