The New York Times – “Dolls are no longer Child’s Play”
A showing at the Castagno Gallery last December introduced the work of Irena Martens to New York. Miss Martens a 24-year old artist who was born in Hamburg, 
Germany, began making dolls three years ago while living in Milan.
They were so successful that she gave up her work as a fashion model to concentrate on exploring other materials for her dolls.
Miss Martens, who works in papier-mache, cloth (stuffed with kapok), leather, feathers and other materials, creates fetishlike dolls that are about a foot tall, although she is now working on life-size figures. The dolls are distinctive for their strong, expertly drawn, faces, the ingenious use of old buttons and junk jewelry in their costumes and the fact that some are closeted in boxes.
“People Characters”
Miss Marten’s “people characters” as she call them . The Life-size ones are not yet
priced. They may be seen by appointment.
