Autry Museum of the American West acquires Patrick Martinez’s “Racism Doesn’t Rest Pee Chee” Drawing

Patrick Martinez, Racism Doesn’t Rest During A Pandemic Pee Chee (No Justice No Peace), Bic pen, stickers, acrylic, white out on found pee chee folder, 12 x 9.5 inches folded, 12 x 19 inches flat, 2020

Charlie James Gallery is proud to announce the acquisition of this critically important piece by the Autry Museum of the American West. Special thanks to Amy Scott and the whole team at the museum for supporting Patrick and preserving this work.

Patrick has been appropriating the American scholastic Pee Chee folder to memorialize victims of police violence for over a decade now, using the folder’s coded early 60s depiction of American high school life to amplify the stark differences in lived experience for kids across racial and socioeconomic lines. In recent years, with the advent of phone video captures of police violence, Patrick has used the Pee Chee format to memorialize people who have died in encounters with police.

This piece arrived at the end of May 2020, during the foment that would lead to a summer of protest across the country demanding comprehensive reform of American policing. The piece registered immediately as a work of significant impact and possible historical significance, and Patrick moved quickly to create an open edition of folders based on the piece that were used to raise money for social justice charities here in Los Angeles. The folder edition generated 500 individual donations to local charities totaling over $21,000, and over 1,300 folders were donated to museums and educational programs around the country.