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After you hit up The Whitney Museum of American Art, you might be hungry for more art. And for those with a sweet tooth, the nearby Fort Gansevoort Gallery in the Meatpacking District has a treat at their latest exhibition, "That Which We Do Not See."
Los Angeles-based artist, Patrick Martinez debuted his first solo exhibition with paintings in the shape of cakes. Unfortunately, you can't actually eat them, but the 3D paintings, using layers of acrylic paint, do a damn good job of looking like the real deal.
Martinez follows a long line of other artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Claus Oldenburg, who specialize in creative renderings of layered icing.
But these sweet portraits aren't just meant to be aesthetically-pleasing. Initially inspired by a video of Tupac’s last birthday (in which there's a cartoonish cake portrait of the late musician), Martinez uses his paintings as delicious odes to lesser-known civil rights leaders.
The exhibition is aptly named after a Martin Luther King quote: “Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” Here, Martinez treats the globally-recognized medium for celebration as a conduit for educating the public about "freedom fighters of all races," who largely remain erased from our history books.
At the exhibit, you'll find cake portraits of Angela Davis, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X, as well as lesser known heroes like Larry Itliong, bell hooks and Rebecca Solnit. Even in its most poignant moment—a cake memorial mourning the death of an immigrant child who died under the watch of ICE—the show remains hopeful rather than pessimistic.
Learn more about the exhibition by visiting Fort Gansevoort’s website.
