Portraying Portraiture

About

Portraits have long had historical, social and political importance. Before photography, a portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. In our contemporaneity, a portrait can be captured by nearly anyone with digital devices such as phones, cameras and computers. The essence of a portrait has progressed and expanded, broadening the denition of what a portrait may be to the contemporary eye. At the same time, notions of identity and status that are tied to the portrait have also expanded and taken on dierent meanings and visual manifestations in our digital age.

This exhibition focuses on six contemporary artists, each bringing a unique approach to portraiture. Some artists follow a more ‘traditional’ approach to portraiture, while adding a modern twist. Other artists take portraits of the past and re-imagine them for the future, pulling the subject into the 21st Century. For other artists, a portrait does not have to portray a face and shoulders or even a human face. Sometimes a portrait might be the absence of a person, instead expressing a character or focusing on their belongings or environment.

Different materials and mediums are explored by each artist, as they create what they have interpreted to constitute a portrait in the modern age. We celebrate all forms of portraiture expressed in this group exhibition, as we highlight artworks that push and play with it’s very denition.