Martini was born in Rome and studied at the Academia di Belle Arte and the University of California at Berkeley. He tried to make it as an artist in Woodstock, New York, but moved to Dallas in the early 1970s since his wife was a Texan. He created sculpture in cast aluminum, marble, and bronze.

By the early 1970s, Martini created works experimenting with light and plaster. In 1975, he had an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts called Projects III which portrayed the cyclical process of creating art. For the exhibit, he created a large welded aluminum sculpture, a series of 30 x 30 inch panels, and a sculpture performance. Each panel had a plaster middle where fruit and vegetables were placed in the panel while it was wet. The fruit decomposed in the panels.

In early 1976 while building on the Projects III event, Martini produced 57 works for an exhibit at the Delahunty Gallery in Dallas. Martini again produced 30 by 30 inch panels that had a foot section in the middle. The artist carved and sanded different wood forms such as triangles, rectangles, and cubes. He placed the wood shapes 1-2 inches into wet plaster creating plaster voids/negative spaces in the panels. Light and shadows change the negative spaces which are referred to as "holes" Our Library has three of these panels.

According to articles in The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Observer, he was quite an interesting figure. He bought an abandoned Jewish synagogue on Grand Avenue which was originally Tiferet Israel (designed by Dallas architect Howard Meyer who also designed Temple Emanu-El on Northwest Highway and Hillcrest). He renovated the space and it was used by other artists. He created a bullet proof fence made of 1/8 inch thick steel with a jagged edge around the top. Martini also tried to create a contemporary art museum in Dallas which never happened.

He lived between Dallas and New York in the late 1970s and 1980s. He opened a lucrative gallery in New York in 1978. By 1986, he completed a 1,200-page doctoral dissertation and was awarded a degree in art education at New York University. The dissertation focused on how people should look at art. Later, he patented an abdominal exercise apparatus and produced an entry for the 9/11 Memorial in New York.

Martini has three children. Son Maximilian (Max) is an actor who has appeared in films and television, including Saving Private Ryan and 24 television series. Son Christopher is a Hollywood film editor and daughter Michelle is a costume designer.

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