Martine Gutierrez: Wunderkind – A Photography & Identity Exhibition at Huis Marseille

Huis Marseille presents 'Wunderkind', a solo exhibition by American artist Martine Gutierrez, featuring a new collection of photographs that explore the art of play and how identity is imagined. The exhibition delves into the artist's ongoing inquiry through the lens of childhood toys, inherited garments, and early creative works. Visitors can expect a vibrant display tracing the origins of self and artistic consciousness.

Huis Marseille is set to open 'Wunderkind', a compelling solo exhibition by American artist Martine Gutierrez (born 1989, Berkeley). This show debuts a vibrant collection of new photographs celebrating the art of play, utilizing toys—some from the artist's childhood, others handmade—to anchor an exploration into how identity is conceived and performed from an early age. The exhibition highlights Gutierrez's unique method of reimagining identity through self-portraiture and cinematic tableaux, using her own body as a site of transformation to examine desire and belonging. The exhibition features a series of life-size photographs paying homage to dresses passed down from women in Martine's life, imbued with memory and the potential for transformation. Complementing these are a special archive of early drawings titled 'Self-Portraits' (1993–1995) and childhood films, including 'The Search for True Beauty' (1999), where a ten-year-old Martine directed her babysitter in an original fairytale. 'Wunderkind' thoughtfully traces the delicate boundary between the origins of self and the awakening of artistic consciousness, prompting visitors to consider profound questions: What constitutes art? Who is empowered to create it? Is the artist a projection, a perception, or both born and made?