El Gato Negro
El Gato Negro
Pepe Mar
Pepe Mar
El Gato Negro is a monumental multi-room architectural installation that references the US-Mexico border as a liminal space. This structure will recreate from memory “El Gato Negro,” which was a 90’s queer nightclub in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico. In the context of Pepe Mar’s work, it will serve as a metaphor for a space that exists between the real and the surreal, an architecture where fantasy and memory collide. The complexities of the border itself will be interpreted as parallel to the specific complexities of queer life on the border. The architecture will be populated by transgressive assemblages featuring a “Paprika” character with winding tentacles made of leather sourced from chaps, caps, jackets, and vests purchased at a second-hand store that serves the queer community.
Signaling towards leather culture, the works suggest the donning of a persona, with leather serving as a secondary skin that once transformed its wearer and now receives a wider transformation within Mar’s practice. The “Paprika” dons this leather as a makeshift skin which gives form to its abstract body and limbs; suggesting the potential identities of those who wore these materials before. The architectural structure will divide the space into two chambers with the inside of the structure being a metaphor for that in-between space where Mexicans/Americans/Mexican-Americans who live in the border communities feel a sense of belonging to at least two cultures.
Queerness is compounded into the sense of belonging to two spheres simultaneously. Queering/resisting/existing in this border sphere amplifies the polarities exponentially. El Gato Negro explores themes of identity and the blurring of memory, fiction and reality. The project will be achieved through Pepe Mar’s artistic lens as Mexican/American queer individual, having seen the nightclub for years but having been too young to go inside. The personal implications of growing up queer in a border town will be explored through the artist’s sculpture, collage, and assemblage artworks. The installation will bring to life both cultural and personal expressions and resistance to settling fully on either side of the border.
Architecture & Design, Installation, Sculpture, Visual Arts
2026
About Pepe Mar
Miami Shores, FL
Pepe Mar was born in Mexico and lives and works in Miami. He received his BFA from California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco and received his MFA from FIU. The artist has completed residencies at the Skowhegan (2011), the Bronx Museum Residency (2013), and others. Recent solo exhibitions include a 15-year career survey at Tampa Museum of Art (2023- 2024); Rising Sun at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (2022-2023); Magic Vessel at Everson Museum of Art (2023); Pepe Mar at Baker Museum of Art (2023-2024). Other exhibitions include Tesoro: Pepe Mar’s Love Letter to the Frost at The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami (2020-2022); Dragonfruit at The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh (2019-2020) and others. Mar is a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Wavemaker grant, the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, two Ellies grants by Oolite Arts, and others. Upcoming museum solo exhibitions include “Dream House” at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH (2026) among others. A monograph on the artist was published in 2025 by Tampa Museum of Art and includes scholarly essays. A forthcoming monograph on the artist will be published by Scala in collaboration with the Currier Museum of Art. The artist’s work has been exhibited throughout the US and abroad and is included in major collections including public institutions such as the Seattle Art Museum; High Museum, Atlanta; ICA, Miami; PAMM, Miami; Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Tampa Museum; Currier Museum; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; among others. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, The Artnewspaper, BOMB Magazine, Burnaway, Panorama and numerous others.
Pepe Mar was born in Mexico and lives and works in Miami. He received his BFA from California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco and received his MFA from FIU. The artist has completed residencies at the Skowhegan (2011), the Bronx Museum Residency (2013), and others. Recent solo exhibitions include a 15-year career survey at Tampa Museum of Art (2023- 2024); Rising Sun at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (2022-2023); Magic Vessel at Everson Museum of Art (2023); Pepe Mar at Baker Museum of Art (2023-2024). Other exhibitions include Tesoro: Pepe Mar’s Love Letter to the Frost at The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami (2020-2022); Dragonfruit at The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh (2019-2020) and others. Mar is a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Wavemaker grant, the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, two Ellies grants by Oolite Arts, and others. Upcoming museum solo exhibitions include “Dream House” at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH (2026) among others. A monograph on the artist was published in 2025 by Tampa Museum of Art and includes scholarly essays. A forthcoming monograph on the artist will be published by Scala in collaboration with the Currier Museum of Art. The artist’s work has been exhibited throughout the US and abroad and is included in major collections including public institutions such as the Seattle Art Museum; High Museum, Atlanta; ICA, Miami; PAMM, Miami; Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Tampa Museum; Currier Museum; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; among others. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Artforum, The Artnewspaper, BOMB Magazine, Burnaway, Panorama and numerous others.