In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a new group exhibition, curated by Latin American art scholar and philanthropist Estrellita B. Brodsky, just started at Southampton Arts Center (25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, 631-283-0967) on Oct. 4.
Titled “Second Skin,” the exhibition explores the intersection of art and fashion, showcasing about 30 works by over 15 international artists and designers, with a central theme of clothing, with a particularly strong emphasis on Latin America, and how clothing serves as a powerful medium for articulating identity, expressing gender and cultural differences and advancing political activism, according to a press release from SAC. Works cover the past 70-plus years of the fashion industry, beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the present.
Left: Nazareth Pacheco Sem titulo (vestido prata) (Untitled [silver dress]), 1999 Crystal, glass bead, and razor blades Photo: Ana Pigosso — courtesy of the Galeria Lume. Right: Martine Gutierrez Neo-Indio, Mam Going Bananas p27 from Indigenous Woman, 2018 C-print Martine Gutierrez. Collection of David Frankel and Lynn Freedman, courtesy of RYAN LEE GALLERY.
“It really begins with the 1950s and goes all the way up until today, and it’s not what I think most people think of with fashion,” Brodsky says. “Fashion is not a neutral. In fact, it dictates so much of what we accept or so much of what we value, and therefore it’s a very powerful site for artists to challenge our relationship with identity and consumer culture and desire visibility in terms of gender, in terms of cultures. So, to really rethink fashion for its power and its ability to convey so much information that we take for granted.”
While widely conceived as a sequel to “Spin a Yarn,” an exhibition presented at Guild Hall in spring 2024 that explored textiles as tools of storytelling, “Second Skin” shifts the focus to fashion as wearable, lived objects that can serve as critical sites. Included are artists who use dress and visual representation to shape narratives of identity, power and cultural memory, the press release says. Additionally, the exhibit brings together practitioners who interrogate the sociopolitical relationship between the body and fashion, the exhibition positions clothing as a determining site for articulating both individual and collective identity.
“’Second Skin’ expands the conversation around fashion by showing how garments operate in our daily lives — they protect us from the elements, they shape our identity, and represent a powerful cultural language, ” said Christina M. Strassfield, executive director and chief curator at SAC.
Organized into three galleries, the curated exhibition features photography, sculpture, textiles, wearable objects and archival material, including various prints from Martine Gutierrez’s acclaimed “Indigenous Woman” and a selection of Andy Warhol works on paper from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Foundation. Key themes include fashion as markers of identity, garments as protective devices, and considering clothing as consumer products within global markets. Across these spaces all 30 or so pieces highlight the multiple roles that clothes play in society.
Left: Andreas Bedoya, Sin titulo (Discos) [Untitled (Disks)], Metal, wire, cotton canvas, 2016, SCAD Museum of Art Permanent Collection. Center: Nazareth Pacheco Faco o possivel… sapato vermelho e regua (I’ll do my best…red shoes and ruler), 2024 Bronze and shoe Photo: Ana Pigosso — courtesy of the Galeria Lume. Right: Felix Beaudry Bury me in his tits , 2020, Hand-tufted fabric Courtesy of the Artist and SITUATIONS, NYC.
“One of the things I’ve also learned that’s interesting is you give better exposure to the artists from Latin America when you put them in conversations with better known artists,” Brodsky says.
Additional artists showcasing their works at the exhibition include Antonio (Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos), Felix Beaudry, Andrés Bedoya, Miguel Fernández de Castro, Sylvie Fleury, Gaspar Libedinsky, Carole Frances Lung, Raúl de Nieves, Joiri Minaya, Nazareth Pacheco, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, Stephanie Syjuco, Milagros de la Torre and WAR BOUTIQUE (Kevin Leahy).
The idea of fashion as ornament or superficial decoration, the exhibition explores how fashion functions as a site where identities are constructed, commodified, resisted and critically reclaimed. Some of the artists craft their own clothing to propose alternative identities or shields against political violence or sexual aggression, while others cull commercially available ethnic patterns, tropical prints to subvert racial and colonial thinking and critique the fashion industry’s beauty standards and commodification of bodies. Others document the growth of clandestine camouflage and bulletproof garment workshops across Latin America to reflect on the region’s violent histories.
“The last two rooms sort of show the darker side of fashion and fast fashion that kind of appropriates cultural identity and uses it for their own purposes,” Brodsky says. “I think it’ll surprise people. I hope.”
This Saturday, Oct. 11, there’ll be a special opening reception for “Second Skin” from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through Dec. 28.
