Martryce Roach Visual Artist & Human Rights Advocate Summer/Fall 2026
Raised in New Brunswick, NJ, Martryce Roach is a self-taught artist whose style is marked by her mix of history, musical references, figures, and geometric shape. Roach constructs surrealistic stories about human experiences and relationships particularly as they relate to African American culture. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health and Africana Studies and a Master’s Degree in Social Work, the context for Roach’s work stems from her passion for wellness, equity, and humanitarianism.
In 2021, Roach was named Curator’s Choice by Pro Arts in Jersey City. In 2022, she was awarded the Mid Atlantic Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Grant through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Also in 2022, she was commissioned by the Meyerhoff Alumni Association to visually capture the life story of University of Maryland Baltimore County former President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. In 2023, Roach completed an artist residency with ArtCrawl Harlem on Governor’s Island, NY. Her pastel drawing, “Facing the Future Together,’’ was licensed by Newark Liberty International Airport, where a massive, mural-sized image of it was displayed digitally in Terminal A from 2022 through 2023. In 2024 Roach was the Public Art and Community Engagement Mural Ambassador for a 240-foot mural installed at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. In 2025, Roach created a large mural honoring the legacy of local educator and activist, Lebby Jones, located on Legends Way in Irvington, NJ, for PSEG and sold 14 pieces of new art in a solo exhibition, hosted by Akwaaba Gallery in Newark, NJ, called Patterns: People in Transition. Roach was honored by Blessed Girls NJ in October 2025 as a changemaker embodying the values of civility, community, creativity, and action while also revealing a new community centered park mural honoring the legacy of Civic League of Greater New Brunswick’s C. Roy Epps. Roach also volunteers as a visual arts judge for the annual NAACP ACT-SO scholarship competition.
Martryce’s work was acquired three times into the permanent collection of The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia, PA, and has been exhibited at a number of galleries and other museums around the United States of America. Her work is also sold at art fundraisers, where generous portions of those proceeds benefit efforts of providing financial assistance to organizations that support marginalized communities.
Martryce Roach creates to inspire social change. She is an advocate and an artist.
Artist statement about residency:
The paintings exhibited are from the artist’s contemplation of pivotal moments in American history starting with The Great Migration. They speak to patterns of oppression and resistance that have persisted for generations and they address the complexities surrounding relocation to unfamiliar new places.
“Art has the power to transform historical narratives into something people can feel”, Roach said. “These works are intended to be dynamic, engaging platforms for viewers to take in our shared stories about what we are, what we have been and challenge us to consider what we aspire to become.”
When creating these pieces that are both historic and current, Roach hopes that people connect with the joy, the loss, the conflict, and the resilience, and leave determined to converse about change.
Roach’s residency consists of two phases:
• This August, the artist will focus on installing a historically themed mural for Spring Street to be a part of Princeton’s celebration of the 250th. This mural will be a part of a gallery crawl this September.
• In November, Roach will exhibit a body of work that engages the history that changes the landscapes of major cities across the country and helped shape American culture, particularly through the confrontation of oppression, the evolution of civil rights and rejuvenation found in the pursuit of equitable opportunities.
More details to come.
This project would not be possible without the support of Timothy M. Andrews, longtime supporter of the Arts Council of Princeton, who has generously underwritten the Anne Reeves Artist-in-Residence program.