April 24–27, 2025

Expo Chicago Contemporary Art Fair

Gabriel Martinez
Rekindling Sparks

Responding to the specific history of Philadelphia based, queer Cuban American artist Gabriel Martinez in Chicago Bill Arning Exhibitions is proud to present “Rekindling Sparks.” Martinez whose works always derives from queer archives and subcultural erotic histories created an unforgettable installation “Sparks in A Dark Room” in 2024 at Chicago’s inimitable and unique Leather Archives and Museum (LA&M), drawing parallels between his art and life and queer Cuban artist, Etienne, the Chicago artist whose work forms the core of LA&M’s collection. For Expo Chicago the works that functioned as part of a freewheeling installation, taped to the wall and tucked into bathrooms have been reimagined in more authoritative, museum-ready and archival forms, 

Gabriel Martinez, a photo-based Conceptual artist,, and curator Bill Arning have maintained a long professional relationship that originated decades before Arning entered the commercial gallery world. Arning curated Martinez’s first New York project at White Columns in 1995. In the United States we have few LGBTQ specific museums.. Chicago, where the leather world was invented, is home to the Leather Archives & Museum, The LA&M was created to preserve the legacy of Etienne (Domingo Orejudos), an artist who died of AIDS-related illness in 1991, whose hyper erotic murals were beloved sites for queer visitors to the Windy City. Invited to work within the museum’s stellar collection of Etienne’s work, Martinez approached Etienne as a maker of myths.

Martinez’s exhibition at the LA&M celebrated an expansive erotic drive through the employment of his unique photo processes that rhyme prurient versions of the “dark room” with a photographic tricksterism and renders the rephotographed images magical. . Martinez’s technique uses contact printing, disco balls, and lasers to bring forth manifestations of our collective leather dreams.

Martinez was raised in Miami but has spent his entire professional career in Philadelphia. It cannot be overstated how influential he has been as a teacher of young artists coming out of school and entering the art scene in that city. Alongside hello visionaries like Hujar, Mapplethorpe and Tillmans Martinez invites us to consider what was lost when the “golden age of promiscuity” ended in tears. Born in 1967, the artist was too young to have experienced the carefree sex depicted here, but as a gay man in his fifties he is figuratively revisiting this era with a mix of survivor’s guilt and erotic envy.