Cinématique

Luis Baylón

Martine Gutierrez

Gideon Rubin

Ryan Lee Gallery is pleased to present Cinématique, which pairs painter Gideon Rubin (b. 1973) with two photobased artists, Luis Baylón (1958-2023) and Martine Gutierrez (b. 1989). Cinema is the frame through which these artists consider tone, composition, and mood. This is the first time Rubin's paintings have ever been juxtaposed with black and white photography, bringing his practice into a new light.

Rubin's work frequently deals with the subjects of memory, history, and identity. Each of his paintings captures a moment in time. Working from photographic source material, Rubin voraciously hunts for old film stills and vintage photographs, scavenging for images on the Internet for each new work. He explains, "I see my practice as being a hoarder in a way – a hoarder of imagery. For years I've been collecting images." Rubin's figures are often turned away from the viewer, or their faces are obscured, as he interrogates the nature of anonymity. "It's a way for me to keep things abstract, keep things moving, keep them from being too specific," the artist says. "What is painting for me? It's a shape touching a shape. That is something I'm always extremely excited about. They are just shapes and colors."

Baylón was a Spanish street photographer who created filmic images of everyday Madrid. He had a keen eye for capturing moments of drama, intrigue, or humor. "I learned about Baylón's work from a serendipitous meeting with Guillermo Paneque, when I visited his salon in Madrid, where his photographs were installed," says Ryan Lee Partner Jeffrey Lee. This is the first time that Baylón's work will be exhibited in New York.

Martine Gutierrez is a contemporary transdisciplinary artist who creates staged images that draw from cinematic influences. Through self-portraiture, she reimagines identity as both material and method. Gutierrez takes on a persona as she adapts to the character she wishes to portray. Her body becomes a site of transformation, an instrument for examining desire and belonging. The Body En Thrall works on view here have never been exhibited before.

Lee explains, "Gideon and I had been discussing an exhibition pairing his work with black and white photography. When I saw Baylón's work, I immediately knew there would be great synergy in terms of mood, composition, and place – as well as with black and white photographic series by Martine Gutierrez including Girl Friends and Body En Thrall. Baylón's photographs are observations while Gutierrez's works are constructions, and Rubin, as the painter, bridges these two approaches to storytelling."

In an accompanying essay, Michael Famighetti writes, "If Rubin resists the face becoming an image, Gutierrez and her mannequins appear always at the ready for their close-up, fully leaning into the idea of the face as an event, one that can captivate or equally disorient. Baylón parses the flow of city life to register the faces that constitute an otherwise anonymous collective. With their silences and stillness, all three are content to show more than they tell, introducing us to strangers that we recognize nevertheless."

Gideon Rubin's (b. 1973 Tel Aviv, Israel) sumptuously painted figures are removed from their original context, maintaining their anonymity and so the viewer is forced to focus elsewhere; on the tilt of the head, the position of a hand or the space between the figures – all of which brim with detail and narrative possibilities. His work has been the subject of important solo and group exhibitions at the Sainsbury Centre, UK (2025); Rubin Museum, Israel (2025); Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2024); k11 Art Museum, China (2022); Rubin Museum, Israel (2020); the Freud Museum, UK (2018); the Chengdu MoCA, China (2016); the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA (2016); and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel (2015), among others. Rubin is represented in prominent public collections worldwide including the Collezione Fondazione San Patrignano, Italy; Fondation Frances, France; Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, Israel; McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, CA; Museum Voorlinden Collection, Netherlands; Rubin Museum, Israel; Ruinart Collection, France; The Seavest Collection, NY; Sender Collection, Germany; the Speyer Family Collection, NY; and the Zabludowicz Collection, UK, among others.

Luis Baylón (b. 1958 Madrid, Spain - d. 2023 Madrid, Spain) was a street photographer who captured the tragedy and grandeur of everyday life, with extraordinary technical skill and a deeply human gaze. He received the Community of Madrid's Photography Award in 2000, and the Endesa Grant in 2005. His work was exhibited at the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (1996), Canal de Isabel II (2001) the Museo de las Peregrinaciones in Santiago de Compostela (2005), Museo Reina Sofia (2013), Centro de Cultura Contemporània Octubre (2013), and the National Museum of Photography in Cuenca (2017). Public collections include Alcobendas City Council, Madrid; Alcorcón City Council, Madrid; Almussafes Cultural Center, Valencia; Archivo Lafuente, Heras; Ars Fundum, Madrid; Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles; Community of Madrid, Madrid; Cuatre Casas Law Firm, Barcelona; Hotel Bauzá, Madrid; House of Culture of Guardamar, Alicante; Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia; Marugame-Hirai Museum, Tokyo; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Portuguese Center of Photography, Porto; and Provincial Museum of Teruel, Teruel.

Martine Gutierrez (b. 1989 Berkeley, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans photography, video, music, and performance. Gutierrez's work was included in major 2026 group exhibitions including Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives at the Museum of Modern Art, and Frida: The Making of an Icon which opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and traveled to the Tate Modern. Gutierrez debuted a new performance in August 2026 as part of the Whitney Biennial. In June 2026, her solo show entitled Martine Gutierrez: Wunderkind opened at Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her work has been acquired by the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, OH; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, ME; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, CA; Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, VA; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, NY; Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, NH; McNay Art Museum, TX; Middlebury College Museum of Art, VT; Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, MA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, IL; Museum of Modern Art, NY; National Gallery of Art, DC; New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, RI; Rockwell Museum, NY; Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, MA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Tang Museum at Skidmore College, NY; Wake Forest University Art Collection, NC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among other institutions.