Southampton Arts Center will host a special Toast to the Artists of “Second Skin,” curated by Estrellita B. Brodsky, with a live “Fashion Interventions” performance by Gabriela Galván on December 20.
“Fashion Interventions”, which was first developed during the summer of 2007 in Soho, New York City, will be in the front of the gallery from 12 to 5 PM, where worn garments are transformed in real time, followed by a festive reception from 5 to 7 PM with cocktails, cookies, hot chocolate, and conversation with the artists and curators of “Second Skin.”
Visitors can bring a piece of clothing to the gallery that they would otherwise discard and allow Gabriela to transform the item on the spot. The participative action will explore human connections, highlight how sustainable action can change our perception of consumerism, and the relationship between clothes and our bodies. “Fashion Interventions” shows how simple actions in everyday life can be tools for positive change in ourselves and our surroundings, sensitizing us to an open ecological awareness that encompasses people of different ages and cultures.
The “Second Skin” exhibition, on view at SAC until December 28, presents approximately 30 works from the early 1950s to the present, with a strong emphasis on Latin America. The exhibition features photography, sculpture, textiles, wearable objects, and archival material, including various prints from Martine Gutierrez’s acclaimed “Indigenous Woman” series and a selection of Andy Warhol works on paper from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Foundation.
Some artists in “Second Skin,” including Felix Beaudry and Nazareth Pacheco, create their own garments to explore identity and protection against political or sexual violence, while others, such as Joiri Minaya and Stephanie Syjuco, appropriate commercial ethnic and tropical motifs to challenge racial and colonial narratives and critique fashion’s beauty standards and commodification of bodies.
The exhibition explores how fashion functions as a site where identities are constructed, commodified, resisted, and critically reclaimed.
“The artists presented at the Southampton Arts Center remind us that fashion frames our sense of self and our perception of others as well as personal agency,” said Estrellita B. Brodsky, Curator, philanthropist. “‘Toasts to the Artists,’ taking place on December 20, will celebrate these ideas and a shared sense of community.”
Artists featured include Antonio (Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos), Felix Beaudry, Andrés Bedoya, Miguel Fernández de Castro, Sylvie Fleury, Martine Gutierrez, Gaspar Libedinsky, Carole Frances Lung, Raúl de Nieves, Joiri Minaya, Nazareth Pacheco, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, Stephanie Syjuco, Milagros de la Torre, WAR BOUTIQUE (Kevin Leahy), and Andy Warhol.
For more information, visit Southampton Arts Center’s website.