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Ficus Interfaith is an artistic duo based in New York City. Ficus Interfaith is a collaboration between Ryan Bush (b. 1990, Denver, CO) and Raphael Martinez Cohen (b. 1989, New York, NY). Bush and Martinez Cohen have been working together since 2013.
Bush and Martinez Cohen met at the Rhode Island School of Design where they both received BFAs in painting.
In the mid-2010s, Ficus Interfaith began working with terrazzo, a cementitious composite material, usually used in flooring. Ficus Interfaith's sculptures explore the creative possibilities of the terrazzo technique which is more commonly found in public or municipal spaces. In addition to their free standing and wall-mounted terrazzo sculptures, Ficus Interfaith make site-specific terrazzo installations. Ficus Interfaith use typical and atypical materials in their terrazzo including but not limited to peach stones, oyster shells, the royal blue glass of Saratoga Water bottles, petrified wood, marbles, pits, deer bones, and walnuts.
Since December 8, 2014, Ficus Interfaith has maintained a WordPress blog titled My Brothers Garden.
The name Ficus Interfaith comes from the "fig tree genus and the allure of spirituality."
Ficus Interfaith work out of a studio in Queens, NYC. For Bush and Martinez Cohen, the Ficus Interfaith entity functions as a third distinct voice. In a December 2023 interview with ARTnews, Ficus Interfaith stated "most of our pieces operate as paintings."
Ficus Interfaith's art is informed by their formal training in painting. Ficus Interfaith credit many inspirations including: material culture, traditional knowledge, craft objects, Rhizofiltration, SpongeBob, The Timeless Way of Building, Rockwell Kent, homosocial behavior, and Pinocchio.