untitled, 2019, found garment, 72″ x 54″

 

These hand-stitched paintings are created from fragments of fabric found in the streets during Gabriel Martinez’s movements across sections of Houston. They situate Martinez as one body among many involved in the manipulation of the material. The paintings record the traces of global capital, evoking those who dyed and printed the fabric, those who assembled the garments, the people who wore and lost them, as well as the artist who places them back into circulation as luxury objects. They serve as an invitation for the viewer to consider not only their formal composition and the laborious nature of their production but also the disjunctive economies that enable such value shifts.

untitled, 2018, found garment, 66 x 46”
untitled, 2019, found garment, 60″ x 48″
untitled, 2019, found garment, 40” x 28”
untitled, 2019, found garment, 36” x 36”
untitled, 2019, found garment 14” x 14”
untitled, 2019, found garment, 30” x 24”
untitled, 2019, found garment, 20″ x 16″
untitled, 2019, found garment, 20″ x 16″
untitled, 2019, found garment, 72″ x 54″