Christopher Sonny Martinez
Audio By Carbonatix
Arts Mission Oak Cliff is a nontraditional art space, and its newest event is a prime example of its mission.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, the space will host Quimeras, an interactive fashion and art presentation offering an arsenal of powerful works by young LGBTQ+ artists. These Texas newcomers are poised to be the art stars of the 2020s. The show will be co-curated by Canorra, an arts collective started in 2020 by Noel Jacquez and Alvaro Arroliga, and by native Oak Cliff artist Christopher Sonny Martinez.
“We started the collective to promote intercultural appreciation and present artists from the underrepresented and underground art worlds,” Jacquez says. “When we attended art events, we noticed there wasn’t really too many places to show experimental art, so we decided to create this platform for that.”
Canorra’s first art show, Thesis, was held in 2021 in a small space in the Dallas Design District called Odyssey Studios. With the help of Martinez, the collective was able to secure Arts Mission Oak Cliff for Quimeras, taking advantage of the substantially larger space, which was built in the 1920s as a church.
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The old church sat abandoned for more than a decade until 2017, when husband and wife Todd and Lola Lott revitalized the building that now houses Arts Mission Oak Cliff.
Now it has the kind of programming you’re unlikely to find at any other art space – such as Beyonce Ballet, a classical dance class that incorporates moves such as twerking.
“What’s cool about this space is that it caters to performance art, and Dallas is such a commercial place artistically, it needs more performance art and spaces for that kind of work,” Martinez says.
The building hosts some of the most cutting-edge art and dance events in North Texas, while ironically reminding patrons of the 1930s Baptist church it once housed. The juxtaposition of raw and challenging LGBTQ+ artwork in such a historically conservative setting serves as a testament to the efforts for social progress made by the queer community.
“I’ve been working with Arts Mission since January of 2021 and had the underground space as a studio as I was the first artist in residency here,” Martinez says. “This past year they asked me do do another show, so I brought Canorra in. My first show here involved religious iconography including the Virgin Mary, black leather, trash bags and body shaving. I do a lot of explicit nudes, and work dealing with openness of the body.”
Reivin Alexandria will perform a piece in a former Oak Cliff church.
Christopher Sonny Martinez
After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Martinez attended the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduation, he relocated to New York to pursue a career in film before being hired by Dallas art and fashion editor and patron Gianna Madrini.
Madrini offered Martinez an opportunity to work as a videographer for her fashion website Global Fashion News, regularly capturing New York Fashion Week. The experience working for Madrini while creating art led Martinez to his interest in curation. Having an eye for presentations became second nature to him.
“My birth as an artist was in Chicago, and it immersed me into an incredible queer and hidden underground art scene,” he says. “There was a venue called Defibrillator that was primarily a performance space where local and international artists showed. Dallas is such a commercial place artistically, I feel like for the most part it was always lacking the real grit of what art should be. That’s why performance art is so great. It can’t be bought.”
As for the artists both Martinez and Canorra picked for Quimeras, the focus was on performance, fantasy and underground potency. Legssss, Reivin Alexandria and Malcriadas are among the featured artists. One group the curators selected, House of Kenzo, is an experimental vogue collective from San Antonio. They consider the collective an important addition to the show; their performance art and presentation will be in the main sanctuary.
“House of Kenzo are queer icons around Texas and also some of the most sickening performers doing real shit,” Martinez says. “What’s cool about them is that they are primarily queer and help provide a safe and inclusive space for the community. Dallas needs more work like that shown here. It’s really conservative and needs to get the stick out of its ass.”
Overall, the show includes 16 artists displaying all forms of expression, in addition to Pinta Labios on DJ duties. The goal of the night is to help break down stereotypes and open up conversations and dialogue about what it means to be LGBTQ+ in a historically conservative city. By presenting a fresh, challenging and potent body of work to a culturally thirsty community, the curators of Quimeras are opening new conversations among Oak Cliff artists.
“The overall goal is to spotlight these artists and bring some excitement to Dallas,” Martinez says. “These queer and femme-centric artists are going to leave the audience gagging.”
Quimeras is free to attend and runs from Saturday, Jan. 28, through Feb. 28 at Arts Mission Oak Cliff, 410 S. Windomere Ave.
