Kelsey D. Martin, PhD, is an Art Historian, curator, educator, and, currently, a freelance researcher/consultant for private collections in the greater DFW area. Though her various curatorial and archival projects have pursued many avenues of interest, her primary fields of specialization rest in early modern Europe with particular emphasis on works on paper, eighteenth-century French art, and women artists from 1450-1950. Her dissertation, “Les Graveuses en Taille-Douce: Professional Women Printmakers in Paris, 1660-1789″ (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2024) explores the much under-studied work and lives of French female intaglio engravers who produced printed works throughout the early modern period. Her research was recently featured in the edited volume, Female Printmakers, Printsellers and Publishers in the Eighteenth Century: The Imprint of Women 1735 – 1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which received the 2020 Publication Grant from the Association of Print Scholars. Her extensive connoisseurial knowledge of works on paper was achieved through years of archival work at both national and international museums and institutions, as well as her relationship to private collectors. She has also curated or co-curated several works-on-paper exhibitions including “Violence and Defiance”– a focus exhibition of German and Austrian Expressionist works on paper– which debuted at the Dallas Museum of Art in August of 2019.
Originally from Loveland, Colorado, Dr. Martin received a BA in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder (2011); an MA in Art History with a minor in Women’s Studies from the University of New Mexico (2015); and a PhD in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2024). She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Mary Vidal Memorial Award from the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art & Architecture (2014); the ‘Rare Prints Project’ internship at the National Gallery of Art (2017); the Object-Based Teaching Fellowship at the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill (2017-2018); the Dedo and Barron Kidd McDermott Curatorial Internship for European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art (2018-2019); and the UNC-CH Georges Lurcy Dissertation Research Fellowship (2019-2020).
In addition to her research and professional appointments, Dr. Martin has served on editorial and symposium committees, presented at national and interdisciplinary conferences, served as Co-Director of the Royster Advanced Mentoring Program at UNC-CH, was elected Co-President of the UNC Art Student Graduate Organization, and studied abroad at both the Université Paris-Sorbonne and the Università per Stranieri di Perugia.