Martine Gutierrez: HIT Movie Vol. 1

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

March 25 - July 24, 2022

Martine Gutierrez is an artist, performer, writer, and musician who constructs elaborate narrative scenes to subvert pop cultural tropes in the exploration of identity—both personal and collective—intersectional to race, gender, class, indigeneity, and culture. Her amass of media—ranging from billboards and episodic films to music videos and renowned magazine Indigenous Woman—produce the very conduits of advertising that sell the identities she disassembles. Gutierrez hybridizes the industry’s objectification of sex with the individual’s pursuit of self, satirically undermining the aesthetics of what we know. While she manufactures “celebrity” to pass as multinational corporations, it is Gutierrez herself who executes every role—simultaneously acting as subject, artist, and muse. 

For her exhibition at CAM, Gutierrez creates a site-specific multimedia experience for visitors. The artist presents HIT MOVIE: Vol. 1, a video collage of sorts, featuring numerous femme fatale characters performed, costumed, and directed by Gutierrez. A trailer of the video is projected on CAM’s facade as part of Street Views and a photograph is on view in the Front Gallery.

Martine Gutierrez: HIT MOVIE: Vol. 1 is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator.