A dramatic, immersive multi-media exhibition incorporating several major new commissions, Gabriel Martinez: Bayside Revisited reflects on the history of Fire Island, and the population that elevated the place to an icon of Queer Culture. Presented as part of The Print Center’s Centennial celebration: The Print Center 100, Bayside Revisited is one of three exhibitions that will be on view at The Print Center, 1614 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, through December 19, 2015.
Martinez’s work has consistently addressed issues surrounding the gay male experienceand the history of gay activism from the Stonewall Riots to the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic. For Bayside Revisited, Martinez has incorporated a variety of print and photographic processes including a site-specific film installation that utilizes footage from an original print of Wakefield Poole’s 1971 landmark film Boys in the Sand, shot in part on the bayside of Fire Island. Also included in the exhibition is a series of haunting images Martinez photographed in the legendary Meat Rack. Martinez’s use of the printed image to celebrate, memorialize and illuminate history echoes The Print Center’s approach to its Centennial.
Philadelphia-based Gabriel Martinez is a Cuban-American workingprincipally with photography, performance and installation. Hereceived an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PAand attended Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting, Skowhegan, ME. He is the recipient of botha Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. He has received two Individual Artists Grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and has participated in various artist residency programs including: The Rosenbach Museum and Library and The Fabric Workshop & Museum, both in Philadelphia; Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL; Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert, ME; MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY. He is Senior Lecturer in Photography at PennDesign. Last summer, Martinez attended the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, his hometown.
Martinez has created performance-oriented events and installations for numerous venues including: Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Art Alliance and Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, all in Philadelphia; in New York at White Columns, Franklin Furnace, Exit Art, Thread Waxing Space and the Scope Art Fair; and at Miami Art Central and Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL. He is included in Art & Queer Culture, Phaidon Press, 2013 and is represented by SamsØn, Boston.
The exhibition has been organized by The Print Center’s Jensen Bryan Curator, John Caperton. Bayside Revisited will be featured in The Print Center’s forthcoming Centennial publication with images of the installation; ane ssay by artist, writer and curator Darren Jones; and a conversation between Martinezand Caperton.
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