The Polygon Gallery presents the Canadian premiere of ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS, Martine Gutierrez’s first major solo show in Canada. The exhibition features 17 self-portraits in which Gutierrez transforms herself into a pantheon of influential heroines who have become legendary through depictions in art history, pop culture, and religion. Her exquisite transformations into Ardhanarishvara, Cleopatra, the Virgin Mary, and Joan of Arc among others, are photographed with the style and glamour of luxury fashion magazines. Using simple sets and minimal props, Gutierrez subverts class, gender, celebrity, and other notions that give images “iconic” status. Originally commissioned by Public Art Fund in 2021 and circulated on bus shelters in New York, Chicago, and Boston, the series was last on view in three separate parts across New York, San Francisco, and London galleries in 2023. The Polygon presentation will be the first time the series will be seen in its entirety.
