Martine Gutierrez
Gender Bending at the Fraenkel Gallery
In a gender-bending portrayal of the nonlinear nature of sex, social groups, and identity, the work of New York-based photographer Martine Gutierrez sharply collapses the barriers of traditional dichotomies and flourishes against the beauty of intimacy. Utilizing self-portraiture as her principal form of self-expression, the artist poses in fluid and magnetizing stances, adorned in either elaborate textiles or practically nothing at all. Now as an opening showcase, the exhibition Half-Breed — the name of which finds inspiration from pop singer Cher’s 1973 album — is currently underway at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco.
The images displayed in the exhibition cover a range of topics with representations from three of Gutierrez’s recent projects, Body En Thrall, Plastics, and Indigenous Woman. The latter leans in close to the photographer’s Mayan ancestry in a way that evokes a certain sense of wit — seemingly a quip at race-inspired societal bearings. “No one was going to put me on the cover of a Paris fashion magazine,” Gutierrez noted, “so I thought, I’m gonna make my own.” In one enthralling image, Gutierrez is pictured leaning back at a veering angle, corn cobs gathered in her hands with native purses and bags hanging from her body. In another, she balances a bundle of wrapped kindling wood atop her head. She wears indigenous clothing melded with designer pieces, a pair of striking red heels taking up voluminous space within the photographs.
“I think of each work as a documentation of a transformative performance,” the artist comments on her process. “I am interested in every facet of what it means to be ‘genuine’, especially when performing in a role society would never cast me in. I stage the scene and emote, but the viewer sees what they want to see; they can actively engage with the work or passively make assumptions. While gender is inherently a theme in my work, I don’t see it as a boundary. The only profound boundaries are those we impose upon ourselves.”
A dreamscape set at some point between reality and another plane, the imagery is sexually charged while simultaneously educational in its adversity to social standards. Gutierrez is the image of self-imposed metamorphosis, oblivious to the empty sway of outside opinions. Beauty and allure are unquestionable within her body of work, yet she additionally challenges the viewer to linger, inviting us to ruminate on her trajectory. We’re left thinking, “What brought her here, and where is she going?”
Half-Breed is on view at Fraenkel Gallery until January 29, 2022. To learn more about the exhibition, visit here.
