Exhibitions | Martine Gutierrez | Fraenkel Gallery San Francisco Photography Gallery Wed, 04 Sep 2024 20:04:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 56972082 Fraenkenstein https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/fraenkenstein Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:54:28 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=83855 Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present Fraenkenstein, an exhibition tracing the persistent resonance of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through work by more than 20 artists. The project is a collaboration between Fraenkel Gallery founder Jeffrey Fraenkel and curator and writer Jordan Stein, of the San Francisco exhibition space Cushion Works. Bringing together an eclectic selection of […]

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]]> Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present Fraenkenstein, an exhibition tracing the persistent resonance of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through work by more than 20 artists. The project is a collaboration between Fraenkel Gallery founder Jeffrey Fraenkel and curator and writer Jordan Stein, of the San Francisco exhibition space Cushion Works. Bringing together an eclectic selection of photographs, collage, sculpture, painting, and film, the exhibition will take an expansive and incomplete look at fear, the unknown, the threat of technology, and the ways in which the Frankenstein story and its characters have moved through popular culture. A public reception for the exhibition will take place on Saturday, June 1, from 2-4pm.

explore the exhibition
Color photograph of an altered image of a dog portrait in front of blue background
John Waters, Reconstructed Lassie, 2012
chromogenic print, 30 x 20 inches (image) [76.2 x 50.8 cm], edition of 5

The monster we’ve come to know as Frankenstein was a vegetarian. He is also nameless, though his creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, refers to him as “being,” “fiend,” and “daemon.” Over the course of two centuries—the book was first published anonymously in 1818—and in the public imagination, the patient has taken the doctor’s name, and the word “Frankenstein” has been fashioned into a noun, verb, and adjective to signal a uniquely grotesque form of cobbled-togetherness.

The book—its story, subjects, and all around “It’s Alive!” flavor (a line taken from the 1931 Boris Karloff film, not the book)—is often read as a parable about the dangers of unchecked ambition, invention, and so-called progress, and its warning has been applied to the atomic age, climate change, the any-day-now takeover of artificial intelligence, and much more. It’s also a story about fear—a fear of the unknown, and a fear of the real and perceived monsters among and within us. In 2024, the book and its themes remain freakishly relevant, legible through countless lenses and applicable to enumerable blood-curdling prospects.

Color image depicting an installation of Frankenstein action figures on a white plinth
Danny McDonald, The Viewing, 2022
Fraenkenstein action figures (plastic, cloth, paint), pedestal, 52-1/4 x 33 x 18-1/2 (overall) [132.7 x 83.8 x 47 cm]

A proper exhibition tackling the book and the ways in which “Frankenstein” moves through popular culture would require a museum with the staff and resources of the Louvre. This project should therefore be considered entirely improper and radically incomplete, populated by artworks that speak in varied ways to the book’s varied concerns. The initial concept for Fraenkenstein was proposed by Stein to Fraenkel in the spring of 2023. Fraenkel said yes on the spot, and Fraenkenstein is the malfunctioning birthchild of their curiously overlapping sensibilities.

The exhibition features works by Diane Arbus, Hans Bellmer, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Bruce Conner, Kota Ezawa, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Brett Goodroad, Katy Grannan, Martine Gutierrez, Whitney Hubbs, Peter Hujar, George Kuchar, Justine Kurland, Christian Marclay, Danny McDonald, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Wardell Milan, Richard Misrach, BJ Newton, B. Ingrid Olson, Woody De Othello, Hiroshi Sugimoto, John Waters, Lindsey White, and others.

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]]> 83855 Fraenkenstein https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/explore-fraenkenstein Wed, 08 May 2024 17:08:22 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=84254 The exhibition Fraenkenstein, on view at Fraenkel Gallery until August 10, is a collaboration between gallery founder Jeffrey Fraenkel and curator and writer Jordan Stein, of the San Francisco exhibition space Cushion Works.​ In a recent conversation, the pair describe their shared interest in the long shadow cast by Mary Shelley’s 1818 book. They discuss […]

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]]> The exhibition Fraenkenstein, on view at Fraenkel Gallery until August 10, is a collaboration between gallery founder Jeffrey Fraenkel and curator and writer Jordan Stein, of the San Francisco exhibition space Cushion Works.​ In a recent conversation, the pair describe their shared interest in the long shadow cast by Mary Shelley’s 1818 book. They discuss the evolution of the Frankenstein story in the larger culture, and the various ways the book’s ideas have been absorbed or reflected by artists.

Color photograph of a figure in a studio working on a realistic and life sized sculpture of themselves
Peter Hujar, Thek Working on the Tomb Figure, 1967
pigment print by Gary Schneider, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm], edition of 10

Jeffrey Fraenkel: I would say this project felt fully born from the moment Jordan first proposed it. We both knew the exhibition would be wide ranging and would encompass work in a variety of media. And of course there were two scientists working on this project instead of the single Dr. Frankenstein in the book – the perfect vehicle to meld our sensibilities. 

Jordan Stein: And to echo the nature of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, it was intuitive to assemble the show from disparate and available parts. The doctor is single-minded in his quest, and it’s clear that he will find a way to animate life. We knew it would come alive. There were certain images and artists that we sent back and forth, and it eventually reached a kind of perfectly manic equilibrium.

Black and white photograph of a monster appearing on a movie screen
Diane Arbus, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” [close up with shoulders] 1958
gelatin silver print / printed by Diane Arbus, 11 x 14 inches (sheet) [27.9 x 35.6 cm]

JF: My early tagline for the exhibition was “art that’ll scare the shit out of you,” but that evolved over time. Now fear is only one aspect of the show.

The first image I sent you was a Diane Arbus photograph made inside a movie theater in 1958. The theater was screening Frankenstein’s Daughter, and Arbus is, I think, recognizing the film’s tawdry scariness that is not really scary. Well, maybe it’s a little scary, but she pokes a hole through that with the photograph.

JS: The scariest stuff in our culture becomes a Halloween costume; Frankenstein is popular on October 31st in every neighborhood in this country. Danny McDonald’s piece, which includes more than a dozen different Frankenstein dolls and action figures, is called The Viewing; the largest one is dead and all the other Frankensteins are mourning its loss. Frankenstein is dead! Long live Frankenstein! There’s something funny and inexhaustible about Mary Shelley’s creation. Arbus certainly picked up on that.

Color image depicting an installation of Frankenstein action figures on a white plinth
Danny McDonald, The Viewing, 2022
Fraenkenstein action figures (plastic, cloth, paint), pedestal, 52-1/4 x 33 x 18-1/2 (overall) [132.7 x 83.8 x 47 cm]

JF: I had forgotten how meta the novel is. It is a story within a story, which is all the more astonishing when you realize Mary Shelley was only 19 when she wrote Frankenstein. The diversity of works selected for the show really do address a wide range of the book’s themes.

JS: Right. And it makes good sense to host the show at Fraenkel as the novel was written right alongside the invention of photography – they emerged just a few years apart. The fact that Dr. Frankenstein sets out to understand the otherwise invisible laws of nature is of a piece with the origins of photographic technology.

Black and white photograph of a television with an eyeball on the screen
Bruce Conner, THE LATE NIGHT MOVIE ON TV: JUNE 10, 1978 @1:20-1:27 A.M.: STERNS MOTEL IN VENICE, CA, NEG.#10A, 1978
gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches (sheet) [27.9 x 35.6 cm], edition of 3
Black and white photograph of an eyeball on a tv screen in a hotel room
Bruce Conner, THE LATE NIGHT MOVIE ON TV: JUNE 10, 1978 @1:20-1:27 A.M.: STERNS MOTEL IN VENICE, CA, NEG.#11A, 1978
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm], edition of 3

JF: For me, maybe the central piece in the show is John Waters’s altered portrait of Lassie after cosmetic surgery, to make her appear younger. I mean, it’s hard for an old broad of a collie to get work in Hollywood these days, right? John’s piece strikes me as the ultimate Hollywood horror story about the fear of aging, told in the darkly comic voice that’s uniquely his.

JS: The Hiroshi Sugimoto is a perfect fit because the doctor talks about how his studies of electricity led to the creation of his monster. And the monster, of course, has a mind of its own – there it is looking back at you in these amazing Bruce Conner pictures. You know, you’re just trying to watch a little TV before nodding off, and BOOM – it’s got eyes on you. Similarly in Richard Misrach’s image of the shot-up Andy Warhol ad, there’s the Terminator-esque intersection of the human and the post-human. All in the name of hair spray!

Black and white photograph of lightening striking against black background framed in metal frame
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lightning Fields 222, 2009
gelatin silver print, 71-3/4 x 60 inches (framed) [182.3 x 152.4 cm], edition of 5
Color image of a color photograph depicting a defaced print ad of Andy Warhol with several bullet holes framed in black
Richard Misrach, Playboy #038 (Andy Warhol), 1990
pigment print, 29 x 25 inches (framed) [73.7 x 63.5 cm]

JF: The Misrach is an unexpected image from a body of work made almost 35 years ago. It’s a straightforward photograph of a copy of Playboy magazine Richard found in the desert, a copy that had been used for target practice. As Richard looked through the magazine, he was horrified by the meanings that had been created by the bullet holes. The shot-through Playboy had become a new type of Duchampian found object.

JS: An art studio is in some ways like a laboratory, and there’s a relationship between artistic production and the activation of inanimate materials. In the Peter Hujar and Whitney Hubbs works, an art studio is clearly a place where unpredictable experiments are sanctioned and protected. In both works, the artist becomes the subject–similarly with Martine Gutierrez’s work. It’s hard to tell where the artist and subject stop and start, and it addresses the extraordinary alchemy that can happen in the studio and in an artist’s imagination.

Photograph of an instillation of multiple photographs on a mirror
Whitney Hubbs, Funny Ha Ha #4, 2022
chromogenic prints & archival clear tape on glass mirror, 36 x 60 inches (overall) [91.4 x 152.4 cm]
Color photograph of a blonde woman with clear plastic wrapped tightly around her head
Martine Gutierrez, Plastics, Brigitte, 2020
chromogenic print, 24 × 17 inches (framed) [61 × 43.2 cm], edition of 8

JS: Dr. Frankenstein retreats from his family and from the broader world in an effort to make sense of his secret passion. I know a lot of artists like that. The doctor’s beating a path to do things that have never been done and to materialize visions that have never been seen. BJ Newton was a California artist who was in and out of correctional facilities, painting unearthly visions he conjured from the confines of a prison cell. There’s a play between portraiture, self-portraiture, landscape, and religious iconography that explores a world that is both here and beyond.

JF: Newton’s painting in the show seems end-of-the worldish, fiery, apocalyptic.

Color image of an oil painting depicting several figures faces meshed in rust colored tones framed in white
B.J. Newton, One Sow, One Reap, 1969
oil on canvas, 21-1/4 x 34 inches (framed) [53.97 x 86.36 cm]

JS: The doctor sets out to animate life, but some bits of human creation are too micro for him to construct. So he makes an oversized version of a person: it’s like the opposite of making a model. It gets bigger, like the kind of enormous animal foot in Brett Goodroad’s painting The Club.

JF: In the Goodroad, the very way it’s painted feels like a roiling of all the energies coming together in Dr. Frankenstein’s studio. If they could be depicted, they would look like this.

Color image of a watercolor depicting an abstracted landscape
Brett Goodroad, The Club, 2015
watercolor on paper stretched over canvas, 24-1-2 x 35-1/2 inches [62.2 x 90.2 cm]

JS: There are serious warnings in this book. I wrote down artificial intelligence a dozen times as I was reading this thing.

JF: Yeah. It feels as if Mary Shelley directly anticipated the potential consequences of artificial intelligence. What we created may soon be out to destroy us.

Color image of a mixed media artwork consisting of a glass bottle on a wooden shelf with a silver spoon inserted in the bottle
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Genie, 2023
mixed media with electronics, magnet, 11 x 10 x 5 inches (overall) [27.9 x 25.4 x 12.7 cm]

JS: It’s pretty uncanny. The monster finds a stack of books outside his hovel, and he begins to understand the complexity of the world by reading them. He’s learning through the construction of a data set.

JF: In a way, Christian Marclay’s works feel as if they are screaming with a warning to wake up, pay attention and save ourselves before it’s too late. Christian’s works were all made during the shutdown and convey that existential undercurrent of anxiety we felt then and continue to feel now.

Color image of collage depicting a figure crying out in pain in white frame
Christian Marclay, Untitled (Cut Throat), 2020
comic book and magazine cutouts on paper, 19 x 18-1/2 inches (framed) [48.3 x 47 cm]

JS: There’s an annotated version of Frankenstein for engineers and scientists published by MIT, but there’s no annotated Frankenstein for artists. It’d be my hope that maybe this exhibition kicks up some ideas around just how powerful and compelling artists’ visions have been, and will continue to be.

JF: One thing is for sure, if Mary Shelley came to see this show, she would love it.

JS: Mm-Hmm. It might even scare the shit out of her.

Color image of a light box depicting a rendering of Edvard Munch's The Scream framed in black
Kota Ezawa, The Scream, 2016
transparency in lightbox, 33-3/4 X 26-3/4 inches (overall) [83.8 x 67.9 cm], edition of 5

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]]> 84254 ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/martine-gutierrez-anti-icon-apokalypsis Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:50:04 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=80008 Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, an ambitious new body of work by artist Martine Gutierrez. The series continues her exploration of identity across the cultural landscapes of gender, race, and celebrity. In 17 new works, Gutierrez has transformed herself into a multitude of idols—a selection from the series comprises Gutierrez’s second exhibition […]

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]]> Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, an ambitious new body of work by artist Martine Gutierrez. The series continues her exploration of identity across the cultural landscapes of gender, race, and celebrity. In 17 new works, Gutierrez has transformed herself into a multitude of idols—a selection from the series comprises Gutierrez’s second exhibition with the gallery. Costumed by the barest of essentials, Gutierrez’s figure is the catalyst, reflecting dystopian futurism upon the symbols of our past. Through each metamorphosis, Gutierrez re-envisions a diverse canon of radical heroines who have achieved legendary cultural influence over thousands of years in both art history and pop culture.

Color image of a black and white photograph of a nude figure covered with flowers and covering their body with their hands framed in distressed metal
Aphrodite from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7

“Still a patriarchal language, a determinative frame. Still a divisional boundary of womanhood, a categorization of the icon, a spiritual reality in mass production. The same face of currency made over and over again. What is an icon, a cult image?

If the icon shows humanity’s spiritual ideal, it is the anti-icon who refuses the delusion of man, his inflated self-conception. For the icon makes real the image, anti-icon must break through to reveal reality. ”

—Martine Gutierrez

Color image of black and white photograph of a seated figure dressed in a shiny metallic head dress cascading down covering their body framed in a distressed metal
Godiva from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7

The project’s cult following began in 2021 when first commissioned by Public Art Fund. Ten images from the original series were chosen to circulate on bus shelters normally used for advertising. Pedestrians encountered the larger-than-life figures on their daily commutes in 300 locations across New York, Chicago, and Boston. Gutierrez adapted these images by veiling the publicly hung nude self-portraits, both delegating her autonomy and struggle in the ongoing political restrictions placed on women’s bodies in the United States.

This summer, Gutierrez will reveal ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS in three distinct selections set to preview across three venues: Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; RYAN LEE Gallery, New York; and Josh Lilley, London. The three-gallery exhibition will be accompanied by a new artist book, published by RYAN LEE, entitled APOKALYPSIS. The full collection of 17 portraits will be presented in its entirety for the first time in a traveling museum show, organized by Polygon Gallery, Vancouver slated for 2024.

Color image of a black and white photograph of a nude figure drenched in black paint posing framed in distressed metal
Ardhanarishvara from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7
Color image of a black and white photograph of a nude figure laying on ground with several peacock feathers extending from their head and black makeup dripping down their face framed in distressed metal
Sheba from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7

Gutierrez is the sole performer in the series, portraying all 17 groundbreaking figures. The exhibition includes Aphrodite, ancient Greek goddess of love, desire and beauty, identified by the Romans as ‘Venus’; Ardhanarishvara, composite male-female figure of the Hindu god Shiva together with his consort Parvati; Cleopatra, Egyptian ruler famed for her influence on Roman politics; Joan of Arc, sainted heroine of France, revered as a holy person for her faithfulness and bravery in battle, burned at the stake by the church; Lady Godiva, bold noblewoman from the Medieval period who fought for justice for everyday people; La Madonna, Italian for ‘Lady, Virgin Mary’, central figure of Christianity, celebrated as the ‘Virgin Queen’ in processions of Semana Santa, throughout Spain and Latin America; and Queen of Sheba, Ethiopian queen, known for her wit, power and wealth, her romance with King Solomon is documented in the Kebra Nagast.

Color image of a black and white photograph of a figure clothed in white with multiple breasts and arms contorted around their head framed in distressed metal
La Madonna from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7
Color image of a color photograph of a seated nude figure holding a wooden sword with gold paint along their chest framed in distressed metal
Joan from ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, 2021
chromogenic print, hand-distressed welded aluminum frame, 55-1/2 x 38-3/4 inches (framed) [141 x 98.4 cm], edition of 7

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]]> 80008 Art Basel https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/art-basel-2022 Wed, 11 May 2022 23:53:38 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=76782 Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to return to Art Basel with work by Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Sophie Calle, Liz Deschenes, Adam Fuss, Martine Gutierrez, Peter Hujar, Richard Learoyd, Christian Marclay, Wardell Milan, Richard Misrach, Irving Penn, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Carrie Mae Weems and others. Robert Adams’s early, unpublished image of a Colorado commercial […]

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]]> Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to return to Art Basel with work by Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Sophie Calle, Liz Deschenes, Adam Fuss, Martine Gutierrez, Peter Hujar, Richard Learoyd, Christian Marclay, Wardell Milan, Richard Misrach, Irving Penn, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Carrie Mae Weems and others.

A black and white photograph of an empty gas station with a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in the back ground.
Robert Adams, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1968-71
gelatin silver print, 13 x 11 inches (mount) [33 x 27.9 cm]
A photo of a black and white book with an image of a gas station on the cover

Robert Adams’s early, unpublished image of a Colorado commercial strip is from his seminal body of work, The New West, a photographic essay about our imprint on the landscape of the American West. Adams’s work is the subject of a current exhibition American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which explores the spiritual and environmental meanings of his work. The show is accompanied by a catalogue (available for purchase here).

Jeffrey Fraenkel on Bernd and Hilla Becher
Duration: 00:01:44 | Release Date: May 2022
Color image of four black and white photographs depicting various girds of towers
Bernd & Hilla Becher, Cooling Towers; Blast Furnaces; Water Towers; Winding Towers [Kühltürme; Hochöfen; Wassertürme; Fördertürme], 1973 – 1986
four typologies, each comprised of nine gelatin silver prints, 34-3/8 x 108-1/2 inches (overall) [87.3 x 275.6 cm]

A collection of typologies by Bernd & Hilla Becher, assembled by a close friend of the artists, brings together four types of structures, subverting the viewer’s expectation of what is being typologized: the structures or the prints.

An image of a tall, slender, mirrored sculpture standing in the corner of a beige room with two framed black and white works of art hanging in the background
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Mathematical Model 004: Dini’s surface: A Surface of Constant Negative Curvature Obtained by Twisting A Pseudosphere, 2006
aluminum, iron, 119 x 9 x 9 inches (overall) [302.3 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm]

Hiroshi Sugimoto works in metal to produce mathematical models, following the tradition of forms envisioned by mathematicians to give substance to geometric ideas. “I have attempted to transform mathematical equations into tangible objects,” he has written about the works, which are created using a computer and advanced machining tools to sculpt each form. 

Black and white photograph of tattooed women holding a small dog
Diane Arbus, Tattooed lady with dog, Philadelphia, Pa. 1964
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]

Diane Arbus signed and inscribed the verso of this print:

“Miss Betty Broadbent, tattooed lady with Goldie, Her dog. Phila. 1964.“

The image is included in the definitive monograph Diane Arbus: Revelations, to be reissued by Aperture in the fall of 2022.

Color image of boarded up store front with paint splotches covering graffiti in black frame
Carrie Mae Weems, Painting the Town #3, 2021
pigment print, 58-7/8 x 86-7/8 inches (framed) [149.9 x 221 cm]

Activism has been central to Carrie Mae Weems’s practice. In new, large-format photographs made in Portland, Oregon, Weems records the aftermath of the city’s 2020 protests for racial justice. In the series, boarded-up windows become a canvas, collecting traces of graffiti and the paint used to cover it.    

Frish Brandt discusses Carrie Mae Weems
Duration: 00:01:07 | Release Date: May 2022
Color photograph of deceased parrot positioned midair with black string framed in black
Richard Learoyd, Untitled [Two parrots], 2022
Ilfochrome photograph, 63-3/4 x 54-5/8 inches (framed) [161.8 x 138.8 cm]

Inspired in part by Paul Gauguin’s 1902 painting Still Life with Parrots, Richard Learoyd’s photograph captures the iridescent feathers and the talismanic form of the two birds. Learoyd describes the image as “a joyous celebration of the exotic mingled with the tragedy of mortality.”

Color image of mixed media work depicting two figures on sandy beach with swatches of blue, white, and yellow in grey frame
Wardell Milan, Two warriors looking for euphoria, 2018
charcoal, graphite, gesso, etching ink, cut-and-paste paper on ink jet print, 47-1/2 x 63-1/8 inches (framed) [120.7 x 160.3 cm]

Wardell Milan works in mixed media, combining elements of photography, drawing, painting, and collage. Themes of freedom of expression and safe spaces are often at the forefront of his works, especially as they apply to the marginalized body.

Black and white photograph of nude male
Peter Hujar, Keith Cameron (II), 1981
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]

“Lightly bearded, with tousled hair falling over one eye, he looks like a Greenpoint hipster,” Vince Aletti has written about one of Peter Hujar’s portraits of Keith Cameron.

Color photograph with negative borders depicting train tracks receding into the horizon, framed in a black frame
Richard Misrach, Train Tracks, Colorado Desert, California, 1984 / printed 2022
pigment print, 63-1/2 x 82-7/8 inches (framed) [161.3 x 210.5 cm]
Frish Brandt on Richard Misrach
Duration: 00:01:26 | Release Date: May 2022
Framed print of a sky blue rectangle
Liz Deschenes, Blue Wool Scale #1, 2019
pigment print on aluminum, 34-1/4 x 24-1/4 inches (framed) [87 x 61.6 cm]

​​Since the early 1990s, Liz Deschenes​ has made the medium of photography the subject of her work, exploring the meaning inherent in its materials. This work​ is from a series that references the Blue Wool Scale, a standard developed by textile manufacturers to measure lightfastness, and widely used in art conservation.

Black and white photograph of two cigarette butts next to one another in white frame
Irving Penn, Cigarette No. 037, New York, 1972
platinum-palladium print mounted on aluminum, 32 x 26 inches (framed) [81.3 x 66 cm]

Writing in 1975 about Irving Penn’s platinum-palladium prints of cigarettes, John Szarkowski noted, “The capricious and frankly inconsequential nature of the nominal subject matter, in conjunction with its ambitious and enormously sophisticated handling, constitute a clear statement of intention: these photographs can be considered only as works of art.”

Daphne Palmer discusses Martine Gutierrez
Duration: 00:02:10 | Release Date: May 2022
Color photograph of women dressed in cultural garb against white background framed in white
Martine Gutierrez, Neo-Indeo, Monochrome Mamacita, p28 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches (framed) [139.4 x 93.7 cm]

Working across mediums, Martine Gutierrez acts as an idiosyncratic cultural producer, blurring the lines between art and advertisement. In Neo-Indeo, a fashion editorial in the self-produced magazine Indigenous Woman, Gutierrez wears Indigenous textiles, some of which belonged to her Mayan grandparents, in a personal, multicultural version of high fashion.

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]]> 76782 Half-Breed https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/martine-gutierrez Wed, 04 Aug 2021 21:04:00 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=74000 Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to announce Martine Gutierrez: Half-Breed, a new exhibition of photographs. Acting as both subject and producer, Gutierrez explores the multiplicity and complexity of identity in a series of pop-influenced narrative scenes. The exhibition, which takes its name from Cher’s 1973 album, will include selections from three recent series, Body En Thrall, […]

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]]> Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to announce Martine Gutierrez: Half-Breed, a new exhibition of photographs. Acting as both subject and producer, Gutierrez explores the multiplicity and complexity of identity in a series of pop-influenced narrative scenes. The exhibition, which takes its name from Cher’s 1973 album, will include selections from three recent series, Body En Thrall, Plastics, and Indigenous Woman, the 124-page magazine for which Gutierrez acted as muse, model, photographer, and art director, creating every element from fashion spreads and ads to an editor’s letter. A Berkeley native now based in Brooklyn, this will be the artist’s inaugural show with Fraenkel Gallery.

explore the exhibition
Framed color photograph of a woman standing against a blank background
Neo-Indeo, Kekchí Butch, p24 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches (framed) [139.4 x 93.7 cm]

Indigenous Woman presents images in the glossy, seductive style of fashion and advertising photography, reimagining the tropes of those genres with wit and nuance. In the project, which was shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Gutierrez carves out a place for herself, trying on fluid identities that touch on race, class, gender, and sexuality. As she has noted, “No one was going to put me on the cover of a Paris fashion magazine, so I thought, I’m gonna make my own.” The exhibition includes selections from Neo-Indeo, a fashion editorial in which Gutierrez wears Indigenous textiles, some of which belonged to her Mayan grandparents, paired with vintage and designer items in a personal, multicultural version of high fashion. In a 1960s-inspired ad, Identity Boots, Gutierrez poses nude except for shiny white go-go boots and brightly colored gender symbols and glyphs, crudely taped to her skin. In a series of portraits titled Demons, Gutierrez transforms herself into mythical women from ancient and indigenous cultures, adorned with sculptural hairstyles and extravagant jewelry. Together, the pages of Indigenous Woman present what Gutierrez has called a celebration of “ever-evolving self-image.”

Framed black and white photograph of a woman standing under a tree next to two mannequins
Body En Thrall, Blonde Daisy, 2020
chromogenic print, 48-7/8 x 32-7/8 inches (framed) [124.1 x 83.5 cm]

In the series Body En Thrall, begun as an editorial for Indigenous Woman, the artist stages photographs using herself as a model, posing with mannequins in charged scenarios. In the selection on view, Gutierrez appears in the guise of a blonde persona she has referred to as “the bombshell,” and pictures provocative scenes that navigate questions about power, desire, and self-objectification.

Framed color photograph of a woman's fave wrapped tightly in clear plastic wrap
Plastics, Izabel, 2020
chromogenic print, 24-5/8 x 17-5/8 inches (framed) [62.6 x 44.8 cm]

In Plastics, Gutierrez pulls plastic wrap tightly over her face while wearing messy blonde wigs and contact lenses, holding her breath as she embodies a series of archetypes. The transparent film pushes her features and smears her makeup, creating portraits that speak to the violence and artifice inherent in mainstream ideals of beauty.

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]]> 74000 Half-Breed https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/half-breed-explore-the-exhibition Thu, 05 Aug 2021 21:02:00 +0000 https://fraenkelgallery.com/?post_type=fraenkel_exhibition&p=74886 Martine Gutierrez’s inaugural show at the gallery presents a selection of work spanning the last four years. Acting as both subject and producer, Gutierrez explores the multiplicity and complexity of identity in a series of pop-influenced narrative scenes. Body En Thrall began as an editorial in Indigenous Woman, the single issue magazine Gutierrez created, working […]

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]]> Martine Gutierrez’s inaugural show at the gallery presents a selection of work spanning the last four years. Acting as both subject and producer, Gutierrez explores the multiplicity and complexity of identity in a series of pop-influenced narrative scenes.

Framed collage of a woman kneeling with multicolored symbols for gender pasted on her body
Identity Boots Ad, p99 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 30-5/8 x 20-5/8 inches (framed) [77.8 x 52.4 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP
Framed black and white diptych of a person standing amidst mannequins dressed in white
Body En Thrall, p116-117 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
two chromogenic prints, 48-7/8 x 32-7/8 inches (each framed) [124.1 x 83.5 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP

Body En Thrall began as an editorial in Indigenous Woman, the single issue magazine Gutierrez created, working as her own muse, model, photographer, editor, and art director.

Framed color photograph of a woman holding a bundle of sticks over her head
Neo-Indeo, Cheek a Boom, p23 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches (framed) [139.4 x 93.7 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP
Framed black and white photographs of a perfume bottle and nude figure holding large flowers over one shoulder
Del’ Estrogen, p2-3 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
two chromogenic prints, 30-5/8 x 20-5/8 inches (each framed) [77.8 x 52.4 cm], edition of 8

In an ad from Indigenous Woman, a curvy glass bottle and nude form advertise “Del’ Estrogen,” an imagined perfume. The name of the scent references Delestrogen, a prescription medication used in hormone therapy.

Color photograph of a blonde woman in a black bra against a flowering shrub
Body En Thrall, Blonde Bra, 2020
chromogenic print, 91-3/8 x 61-3/8 inches (framed) [237.1 x 155.8 cm], edition of 2 + 1 AP
Framed color photograph of a woman in red high heels and knitted dress holding ears of corn
Neo-Indeo, Cakchi Lana Caliente, p29 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches (framed) [139.4 x 93.7 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP
Framed color photograph of a woman in a woven outfit and mismatched socks
Neo-Indeo, Glamour is a Heavy Burden, p36 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
chromogenic print, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches (framed) [139.4 x 93.7 cm], edition of 8

In Neo-Indeo, a fashion editorial in Indigenous Woman, Gutierrez wears Indigenous textiles, some of which belonged to her Mayan grandparents, in a personal, multicultural version of high fashion.

Framed black and white photograph of a nude woman eating a slice of watermelon under trees leaning against a nude female mannequin.
Body En Thrall, Blonde Watermelon, 2020
chromogenic print, 48-7/8 x 32-7/8 inches (framed) [124.1 x 83.5 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP

Gutierrez has continued the series Body En Thrall beyond the pages of Indigenous Woman. In recent images, the artist embodies a character, now blonde, who acts alongside male and female mannequins to explore the limits of her own erotic power.

Installation view of a framed photograph of a woman seated in a collaged garden

Gutierrez has described the aesthetic of excess in Queer Rage, an editorial from Indigenous Woman, as an expression of her own adolescent frustration and fury.

Color photograph of a blonde woman with clear plastic wrapped tightly around her head
Plastics, Edith, 2020
chromogenic print, 24-5/8 x 17-5/8 inches (framed) [62.6 x 44.8 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP
Framed color photograph of a woman's fave wrapped tightly in clear plastic wrap
Plastics, Dahlia, 2020
chromogenic print, 24-5/8 x 17-5/8 inches (framed) [62.6 x 44.8 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP

In Plastics, Gutierrez pulls plastic wrap tightly over her face while wearing messy blonde wigs and contact lenses, holding her breath as she embodies a series of archetypes.

Framed black and white photograph of a woman seated in a long white dress holding the arm of a mannequin in a white suit
Body En Thrall, Blonde Shoe, 2020
chromogenic print, 48-7/8 x 32-7/8 inches (framed) [124.1 x 83.5 cm], edition of 8 + 2 AP

Gutierrez has described the style of Body En Thrall as “aesthetically closest to my voice.”

Diptych of framed color photographs of, on the left, a woman dressed in blue holding blue and white striped shopping bags of fruit. On the right, a bunch of pink flowers on a green chair next to a bag of pineapples on the floor.
Neo-Indeo, Plastico y Swag, p38-39 from Indigenous Woman, 2018
two chromogenic prints, 54-7/8 x 36-7/8 inches [each framed], edition of 8 + 2 AP
Daphne Palmer on Martine Gutierrez
Duration: 00:02:38 | Release Date: Sep 2021

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