Cool Hunting - ZONA MACO 2023: MAJESTIC BODIES
MIchael Gomez MIchael Gomez

Cool Hunting - ZONA MACO 2023: MAJESTIC BODIES

One of ZONA MACO’s greatest draws is the generous floor space offered by the Centro Citibanamex convention center the festival calls home. Exhibitors are obviously eager to fill it, bringing with them their largest works and impressive installations to scale the size of the hall. But Albuquerque-based Apolo Gomez’s comparably tiny tryptic of photographs was perhaps the most disruptive piece at the fair. Featuring drag performer Antho Maravella, these images continue Gomez’s Exodus series, a collection of Polaroids documenting the Chicanx artist’s friends and lovers through the lens of queer kink. The size of the work—displayed on a white wall nearly devoid of any other art work to beckon the viewer in—shares with us a snippet of intimacy as captured in the moment. The tryptic’s centerpiece uses prismatic distortion to obscure the exhibitionism within, reflecting the dizziness of desire in all of its gender-morphing potential.

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