 Self Portraits by Heterosexual Men (Stephen), 2007 C-print, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 79 cm Gabriel Martinez Self Portraits Samson Projects excitedly presents Gabriel Martinez's "Self Portraits," his first solo exhibition since joining the gallery. In 1998, Martinez exhibited a project of small ambrotypes (1) for the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he asked 100 heterosexual men to photograph their own feet (via an extended cable release and 35mm film) at the point of self-induced climax. Martinez reprises the project using digital in an almost life-size format (and a remote). In "Self Portraits by Heterosexual Men" 2007, Martinez relays an intimate act of pleasure. A role of art is to give pleasure. Martinez asks by word of mouth, flyers and sites like craigslist.com. He sets up with a camera, a tripod, a light, a camera remote, lubricant and some porn, if they so wish to use it. The photographs are taken wherever is agreed. Martinez leaves and returns when instructed to collect his equipment. "The work of Gabriel Martinez redirects the coded relays of the reflexive, sometimes transgressive, often self-punishing gay male gaze and places them in relation to broader social collectives and other ways of seeing. Grounded in performative actions - private and public, scripted and spontaneous, theatrical as well as vernacular and banal - they are often recorded by photographs invested with the potency of relics. While his general methods reflect the strategies of contemporary peers who have brought photography and performance closer together over the last three decades, his practice is distinguished by a largesse manifest by its often lavish materiality as well as the scope of the audience to which it is directed" (2) Gabriel Martinez was born in 1967 in Miami, FL; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. He received a MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, 1991 and a BFA in Photography from the University of Florida, 1989. He has created performances and exhibited at White Columns (NY), Franklin Furnace, Exit Art (NY), Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art (PA). A catalogue with an essay by Richard Torchia is available. 1: The ambrotype was developed in the mid-1850s as a less expensive, more practical alternative to the daguerreotype. It is a negative image on glass, made to appear as a positive by showing it against a black background. 2: Richard Torchia, "The Definite Article," Gabriel Martinez: Self Portraits (Boston, Samson Projects, 2007), 35 Exhibition: October 26 - December 8, 2007 Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 11 am - 5 pm, and by appointment Samson Projects 450 Harrison Avenue Storefront 63 USA-Boston, MA 02118 Telephone +1 617 357 7177 Fax +1 617 357 5559 Email samson@samsonprojects.com www.samsonprojects.com |
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