For over four and a half decades, Kim Martindale has produced some of the country’s most prestigious and successful art shows. He was immersed in the art world from an early age and has brought his professionalism and enthusiasm to all areas of his work: appraising, advising, buying, selling, and gallery management, along with art show development, promotion, and production. Martindale currently co-owns Objects of Art Shows LLC with John Morris. Together, since 2010, they produce Objects of Art & American Indian/Tribal Santa Fe. They also produced the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show and the American Indian Art Show/San Francisco, which celebrated a 38-year run. As of 2021, the San Francisco shows became a virtual-only venue.

In 2022, Martindale acquired Whitehawk Antique Indian and Ethnographic Art Show Santa Fe, the oldest annual show and sale of antique American Indian and international tribal art in the U.S. Additionally, a show that Kim helped implement and coordinate at the tender age of 16. Also in 2022, Martindale had the honor of spearheading Indigenous Celebration NM 2022 (IC22) alongside JoAnn Balzer, Bill Butler, Felipe Colon, and George Rivera in this new overarching marketing campaign uniting over 40 New Mexico-based art organizations. In 2023, Martindale will be launching Indigenous Art Fair Contemporary (IAF Contemporary), an event that runs concurrently with Indian Market that will feature galleries that showcase contemporary art by indigenous artists from around the United States and Canada.

Martindale has had a rich and diverse career that began in his early teens when he helped coordinate and implement the original and influential Whitehawk, (formerly the Antique American Indian Art Show Santa Fe). After graduating from high school in 1979, his specific areas of interest led to intensive studies at various University of California campuses, as well as universities in Iowa, Japan, and Taiwan. At the same time, he continued his education by getting hands-on experience working for Sotheby’s Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

His passions led to a succession of groundbreaking shows in Santa Fe, New Mexico that he co-produced: Ethnographic Art Show, Winter Antiquities Show, the Summer Antiquities Show, and the Old West Show. Martindale’s credits also include the Tribal Art Show, held in association with the Denver Art Museum, and the Scottsdale Antiques and Fine Art Show, Emerging Artists, and ARTscottsdale, all in association with the Phoenix Art Museum and Art and Antiques Magazine. In California, he produced the Santa Monica Indian Art Show, as well as the San Francisco show, Ethnic Visions.

With California as his home base, Martindale recognized the growing influence Los Angeles was having on contemporary art and became a formative partner in establishing the official designation of January as Los Angeles Arts Month, thus creating a county-wide public and private partnership promoting all of the arts through every available media outreach. He is proud to be a past co-chair (with Ron Hartwig of the J. Paul Getty Trust) of the Los Angeles Arts Month Committee. Martindale founded and produced the first 25 years of the LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Martindale’s related credits include proprietorship of galleries in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Venice, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a founding and current Board member of the Antique Tribal Arts Dealers Association (ATADA). Martindale’s current “private” gallery, KR Martindale Gallery in Marina Del Rey, California, offers (by appointment) an eclectic mixture of ethnographic art with an emphasis on contemporary paintings, Native American, Latin, and Asian art.