Martine Gutierrez, New York-based photographer, performance and video artist, joins Public Art Fund Associate Curator Katerina Stathopoulou on December 2 for a conversation on the occasion of her first public art exhibition, ANTI-ICON.

The exhibition of newly commissioned photographs extends Gutierrez’ exploration of identity across the cultural landscapes of gender, race, class, and celebrity. In ten new works, she has transformed herself into a multitude of roles, reinterpreting a diverse canon of radical historical and mythological figures. Through each metamorphosis, Gutierrez embodies the spirit of heroines who have achieved legendary status across cultures, over thousands of years, in both art history and popular culture. Gutierrez is the sole performer, portraying ten groundbreaking idols: Aphrodite, Atargatis, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Gabriel, Lady Godiva, Helen of Troy, Judith, Mulan, and Queen of Sheba. Each is renowned for their resilience, leadership, courage, and influence. To Gutierrez, these attributes are influential expectations of the LGBTQ+ community, with which she identifies. Merging the language of luxury advertising with a DIY aesthetic, ANTI-ICON was exhibited on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York, Chicago, and Boston—spaces used for advertising—the larger-than-life portraits were encountered on walks or daily commutes.

This artist talk will delve into Gutierrez’s artistic practice and the process through which she reimagined herself using simple props and disguises to create ANTI-ICON.

Join us virtually or in person at The Cooper Union’s Frederick P. Rose Auditorium for this free talk. Registration is required to watch virtually or in person.

Please note, there is limited capacity at the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, and all in person attendees must adhere to COVID-19 guidelines, show proof of vaccination, and wear a mask while indoors.

To attend in person or watch virtually via livestream on YouTube, register here for free.

About the Artist
Martine Gutierrez (b. 1989) is an artist, performer, writer and musician who constructs elaborate narrative scenes to subvert pop cultural tropes in the exploration of identity, both personal and collective intersectional to race, gender, class, indigeneity and culture. Her amass of media—ranging from billboards and episodic films to music videos and renowned magazine, Indigenous Woman—produce the very conduits of advertising that sell the identities she disassembles. Gutierrez hybridizes the industry’s objectification of sex with the individual’s pursuit of self, satirically undermining the aesthetics of what we know. While she manufactures ‘celebrity’ to pass as multinational corporations, it is Gutierrez herself who executes every role—simultaneously acting as subject, artist and muse. 

Gutierrez received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. She is also a published musician and has produced several commercial videos. Gutierrez lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

Public Art Fund Talks are presented in partnership with The Cooper Union