Under My Skin, Harmony Hammond Geoffrey Chadsey Steve Locke Robert Martin Logan T.Sibrel Samuel de Saboia Pedro Ruxa

Campeche presents Under My Skin, a two-part exhibition that explores the process of layering as a mean to partially reveal, obscure, or filter shared experiences within contemporary queer culture. Taken together, the works create multiple entry points for the viewer, who is invited to do their own excavation of sorts, reading and interpreting the codex of signs and symbols embedded in each work.

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  • “The paintings are layered and built out of themselves—from the inside out. [...] Up close under-layers of color are visible through surface cracks and crevices. It’s about what’s hidden, what’s revealed, buried, muffled, pushing up from underneath.…a surface under stress. Might the painting surface as edge between art and life be a site of negotiation?”

     

    —Harmony Hammond, A Manifesto (Personal) of Monochrome (Sort of), 2013
  • The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in... The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in...
    The starting point of the exhibition is Harmony Hammond, an artist, writer, and curator, who is a leading figure in the development of feminist and queer art since the 1970s. ​​Hammond’s earliest feminist work combined gender politics with post-minimal concerns of materials and process, opening the door to future generations of queer artists, writers, and thinkers. 

    Hammond’s grommetypes—a term coined by writer Lucy Lippard—are powerful works that occupy a space between painting and sculpture while hinting at the human body’s skin and orifices. These monotypes on handmade paper are punctured by a grid of holes, in an effort to disrupt and challenge the narrative of modernist abstraction, in favor of a feminist and queer discourse. The gridded field of grommeted holes physically opens the painting surface alluding to layers, spaces and histories buried below. For Hammond, “It’s about what’s hidden, muffled, covered up or over, pushing up from underneath, asserting itself, suggesting agency and voice.”
  • Utilizing a similar layering of materials as Hammond, artist Geoffrey Chadsey collages a variety of water-soluble-pencil-and-crayon drawings on mylar that... Utilizing a similar layering of materials as Hammond, artist Geoffrey Chadsey collages a variety of water-soluble-pencil-and-crayon drawings on mylar that... Utilizing a similar layering of materials as Hammond, artist Geoffrey Chadsey collages a variety of water-soluble-pencil-and-crayon drawings on mylar that... Utilizing a similar layering of materials as Hammond, artist Geoffrey Chadsey collages a variety of water-soluble-pencil-and-crayon drawings on mylar that...

    Utilizing a similar layering of materials as Hammond, artist Geoffrey Chadsey collages a variety of water-soluble-pencil-and-crayon drawings on mylar that evoke the collectively assembled parts of an exquisite corpse. In Skull-Flip (2022), a totem of multiple human heads that sit atop one another create the illusion of transparency and amalgamation of forms by collaging multiple works into one. These figures are in a constant state of shedding and becoming, shifting between genders, time frames, and sometimes even revealing the human anatomy and composition. 

     

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  • Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,... Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure,...

    Known for his large-scale mixed-media paintings, Samuel de Saboia addresses existential dichotomies such as life and death, pain and pleasure, and virtue and vice. By weaving complex patterns of lines and color, the artist reveals fragments of his own personal narrative as he explores themes including sexuality, migration, and displacement. In Earth Rising (2021), various figures seem to concede and recede through lines of color, evoking a metaphysical world where heaven and earth, mortal and eternal, reality and dreams, all seem to coexist. 

  • I’m a Queer Afro-Indigenous Visual and Multimedia Artist from a Third World country ruled by a wannabe dictator. I was...
    I’m a Queer Afro-Indigenous Visual and Multimedia Artist from a Third World country ruled by a wannabe dictator. I was born in a place that since day one tried to set me up to fail, but where there’s hope, there’s beauty, and to not only achieve but inspire is a tremendous blessing [...] It’s the fire, the love, the old wisdom but mostly it’s hope.
     
    —Samuel de Saboia, i-D magazine, 2020
     
     

     

     

     

    Samuel de Saboia
    Earth Rising, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    200 x 110 cm (78 3/4 x 43 1/4 in)

  • A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through... A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through...

    A defining feature of much of Steve Locke’s practice is an exploration of how meaning and identity are encoded through portraiture, with a particular focus on male desire, vulnerability, and gazes. From the seductive nature of his paintings to the familiar but unreliable record of his photographs, he directs our gaze to help us look critically and unflinchingly at our shared history. In glance painting #3 (2008), we see the portrait of a man in what seems to be an exchange of looks, a way in which gay men principally find, respond, desire, and relate to each other. 

     

    The artist explains, “If art is anything, it’s a public discourse. I’m not making art because I’m trying to express myself or share my feelings with the world because my feelings are no different than anyone else’s. I’m not special because I’m an artist. What I can do is I can make people pay attention to things through composition, through color, through scale, through organization through conceptual frameworks. I can make people look at something and think about it.”

  • Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life... Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life... Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life... Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life... Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life...

    Artist Logan T. Sibrel merges a myriad of personal experiences that allow the viewer to enter the artist’s intimate life through different points, although in a voyeuristic manner. His paintings and drawings, which often seem like collages, explore joy and beauty but also fear, sadness, and aggression. Each composition creates a multidimensional narrative in which figures overlap and engage with each other, revealing enigmatic bits and pieces of a longer, yet fragmented storyline. 

     

    “I’ve begun to realize that all the work I do is a way of sorting out how I feel about a person/place/thing,” explains the artist. “Regarding my subjects—I’m compelled to assert myself through various visual iterations until I reach some sense of clarity, then I move along. This has always served me well in terms of being able to keep making work, and it has the added benefit of occasionally making my personal life a little easier to navigate.”

     

  • Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or... Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or...

    Combining figures, words, colors, and shapes, artist Pedro Ruxa’s works create an intimate dialogue, between himself and the paint, or the viewer and his words. Ruxa constantly creates ever-changing clouds of words and imagery and sticks them on his studio walls, making them the starting point to his oeuvre. Yet, he simultaneously explores the restraints of this same language: what is happening before or after what we see? The more Ruxa tends to take control over his words, his sight, and his emotions, the more he is unable to contain it within the realm of comprehension. Speaking about his practice, the artist recalls, ​​"When I was a young boy I often had this feeling that reality was a fiction, like a permanent cinema screen with pictures scrolling, and that I was not able to take part in it. I felt like a passive spectator of my own life.”

  • In Valerie’s Letter (2021), Robert Martin opens up about their personal identity and family history. This work relates to their... In Valerie’s Letter (2021), Robert Martin opens up about their personal identity and family history. This work relates to their... In Valerie’s Letter (2021), Robert Martin opens up about their personal identity and family history. This work relates to their... In Valerie’s Letter (2021), Robert Martin opens up about their personal identity and family history. This work relates to their...

    In Valerie’s Letter (2021), Robert Martin opens up about their personal identity and family history. This work relates to their uncle and namesake, Marty, who died from AIDS complications in 1994—the same year the artist was born. The powerful composition reveals a letter sent by their grandmother outlining their family’s lineage, alongside a photograph of their uncle and a saucer with a tea bag. The seemingly ordinary scene is showered by a rainbow light, curiously suggesting a force beyond what the eye can meet. In a recent interview, the artist shared: “Interacting with the items felt in some way like a conversation, and through these interactions I was able to explore and question my gender expression subtly, allowing me to realize my non-binariness in a safe and slow manner.”