Martín Gutierrez, 24, is a gender-blurring artist who seamlessly integrates performance, video, and photography to engage (and disturb) his audience into seeing the world as he does: a place where he constantly grapples with social issues linked to race, sexuality, gender, and class. It’s a cocktail, perhaps unsurprisingly, that has many in the fashion world already taking an interest in his early work. Saint Laurent plucked Gutierrez (who produces music under the name Martine) out of obscurity when the brand selected his unreleased single, “Hands Up,” for its 2012 cruise collection video editorial; houses like Dior and Acne have followed suit by using his music, too.
Starting today and running through August 16, the RISD graduate’s first solo exhibition, titled Martin(e), will be on view at the Ryan Lee Gallery in Chelsea. In addition to a three-part, eerily melancholic video series titled Martine Pt. 1-3, the exhibition will include a photo series called Real Dolls in which Gutierrez personally dives into the world of life-sized sex dolls — by assuming the personae of four different dolls that he’s named Ebony, Luxx, Mimi, and Raquel. Click through the slideshow to get hypnotized, first by the stark juxtaposition of these sex dolls posing wantonly in a suburban setting, and second, as you process that Gutierrez himself is the doll in every single photo.