Latin American Art And Fashion On View At Southampton Arts Center

Fashion and style are our ‘second skin,’ in a way. It’s how we present ourselves to the world. But more than just peacocking, it’s also how some of us camouflage ourselves, too.

One fashion-focused exhibition is now on view at the Southampton Arts Center, Second Skin, which runs until December 28. The curator, Latin American art scholar Estrellita B. Brodsky, has chosen over 30 artworks from 17 international artists showing how clothing, fashion and textiles are a powerful tool for identity and cultural differences. Artists like Joiri Minaya, Martine Gutierrez, Felix Beaudry, Sylvie Fleury, Raúl de Nieves, and artist duo, Antonio (Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos) from Puerto Rico, are on view.

“The field of fashion plays into our ideas of identity; cultural identity, gender identity, and also sometimes political activism,” said Brodsky. “I thought it would be a good way of taking a more global look at those issues.”

Felix Beaudry’s “Fire Feet,” made from machine knit fabric is a colorful piece on view. “He has worn them as part of a performance, his art is really about this idea of how you can’t identify people’s gendered ideals and the absurdity of clothing as markers of identity,” said Brodsky.

We see a masculine-like yarn overcoat with oversized pink feet on view in the exhibition. “Felix uses humor and also likes to have this relationship with the idea of commercial industry of clothes making with a very personalized way of creating these formless figures; he uses humor and distortion to do that,” she adds. “So, it’s really these exaggerated muscular male physiques, but then becomes a parody of what the ideal of masculinity should be. So, he’s exploring that kind of vulnerability and fluidity.”

Other Latin American artists use clothing or fashion to focus on the theme of camouflage and protection. “They associate clothing as a form of armor or protection,” said Brodsky. “But then you have somebody like Milagros de la Torre, who photographs these bulletproof t-shirts and clothing that look commonplace. She comes from Peru, where people use these clothes daily. And some artists like Joiri Minaya looks at how, through different patterns, the fashion industry can make their own sort of colonial practice that appropriates and exoticizes patterns. It erases the individuality of the cultures that they come from.”

Martine Gutierrez has several works in the exhibition, too. The prolific art star has always had a footing in the fashion world, and we see that in several works in this exhibition, including some works from her “Neo-Indeo” series, the fashion editorials featured in the artist’s magazine Indigenous Woman from 2018. ⁠

“She created an artist magazine that is a play on fashion magazines called Indigenous Woman, which she published in 2018, and she identifies herself as a model,” said Brodsky. “She questions how we envision beauty, gender and ethnicity, and how they are represented. Her other series in the show, Body En Thrall, is very much a take on Hollywood beauty and how she wanted to be a fashion model.”

Brodsky, a New York City-based curator has Uruguayan and Venezuelan roots, and has previously curated exhibitions, like Argentina-born abstract artist Julio Le Parc: Form into Action at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and co-founded Another Space, a non-profit program created to show artworks by Latin American and Latinx artists. “We just had our tenth anniversary,” said Brodsky. “I think it’s a good way of exposing the American public to some of the common interests and sometimes themes that are not necessarily common to all people.”

Brodsky’s goal with the Second Skin exhibition, above all, is to give credit to artists who Latin American artists. “My focus is always for people to understand the impact of these narratives that we take for granted,” she said. “These are rich cultures and traditions that we should be lauding and not challenging. And so, it’s a difficult time for everybody. I mean, I think all of us have our own cultural backgrounds that we want to be proud of.”

Southampton Arts Center is located at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton, NY and the gallery is open to the public from 12pm – 5pm, Friday through Sunday.