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related info › Creating Identity-Street Level Gallery › press release

other 2010 exhibitions › Creating Identity-Street Level Gallery › Creating Identity-Atrium Gallery › The Pleasure Park (Elena Dorfman) › Talking Back (Leslie Lyons)

Creating Identity: Portraits Today

Atrium Gallery

August 2009 - July 2010
Street Level & Atrium Galleries

Opening Recepetion, Honoring Local Artists Ben Durham, Gaela Erwin, Letitia Quesenberry and Chris Radtke
Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 5:30pm
in the Atrium Gallery
Free and open to the public

Portraiture has played an important role throughout the history of art in defining the political and social climate of the day. Contemporary portraiture however has become less representational and increasingly conceptual as it addresses the complexities of personal identity through themes such as childhood innocence, loss, gender, race, and social inequalities. This exhibition of over seventy artworks by thirty-seven artists demonstrates how a diverse group of international and regional artists explore these themes and struggle with similar challenges of what it means to be an individual.

Looking to history as a reference, several artists in the exhibition portray traditional imagery to critique contemporary social issues. Exploring African American identity, Kehinde Wiley has inserted a black male in street wear into the canon of Western European portraiture posing him as a prophet. Similarly, Mickalene Thomas references historic imagery through her stylized rhinestone painting and video, exploring female beauty through empowerment instead of objectivity.

Artists today are also reinventing the genre of portraiture itself. The shattered glass spewing from the wooden structures of Chris Radtke's self-portrait represents the artist's exact body volume and the fragility of the human form. Germán Gómez has created self-portraits from photo-collages yet his own image is hardly visible.

Continuing in the downstairs Atrium Gallery, one can see how the portrait can reflect the artist's reexamination of the innocence of youth and explore themes of loss and yearning. The subject of childhood varies from Jock Sturges' idyllic depiction of youth to Ruud van Empel's and Loretta Lux's mysterious, unattainable innocence. This departure from innocence becomes even more pronounced in the work by Gaela Erwin and Miguel Ángel Rojas, where the subjects have encountered a very real form of loss or suffering.

The bombardment of media imagery, loosening of gender stereotypes, and reconsiderations of race are just a few examples of the pressures of contemporary society that challenge our identities. This exhibition demonstrates how artists today are using these challenges in their photography, sculpture, painting, video, and other art forms to redefine our ideas of representation. Art continues to be a barometer of our culture and the portrait shows us who we are and how we feel about who we are.

Exhibited Works–Atrium Gallery

• Chuck Close (American), Lucas, 1993. Silk, linen.
• James Croak (American), Dirt Man with Carp, 1987. Cast dirt and cast resin.
• CutUp (British), Untitled (Lightbox), 2007. Reordered bus shelter advertising poster in light box.
• Ben Durham (American), Natasha, 2008. Graphite text on handmade paper.
• Nathalia Edenmont (Ukrainian), Lost, 2007. C-prints mounted to glass in wooden frames.
• Nathalia Edenmont (Ukrainian), Black Night, 2008. C-prints mounted to glass in wooden frames.
• Ruud van Empel (Dutch), Moon #1, 2005. Dye destruction prints, mounted on diasec.
• Ruud van Empel (Dutch), Moon #2, 2005. Dye destruction prints, mounted on diasec.
• Ruud van Empel (Dutch), Dawn #1, 2008. Cibachrome, dibond, plexiglass.
• Ruud van Empel (Dutch), Dawn #2, 2008. Cibachrome, dibond, plexiglass.
• Gaela Erwin (Louisville-based), Self Portrait as Widow, 2008. Pastel on Wallis museum grade paper.
• Keith Farquhar (Scottish), Teenager, 2007. Perspex, sweatshirt, garbage bag, wood.
• Pieter Hugo (South African), Vernon Bernard, Somerset West, 2005. Archival pigment print on cotton rag paper.
• Loretta Lux (German), Troll 2, 2000. Ilfachrome print.
• Loretta Lux (German), The Book, 2003. Ilfachrome print.
• Loretta Lux (German), The Bride, 2003. Ilfachrome print.
• Loretta Lux (German), Milo 2, 2004. Ilfachrome print.
• Loretta Lux (German), Three Wishes, 2001. Ilfachrome print. Collection of Rowland Miller, Louisville, KY.
• Loretta Lux (German), Paulin, 2002. Ilfachrome print. Collection of Rowland Miller, Louisville, KY.
• Loretta Lux (German), Study of a Boy 2, 2002. Ilfachrome print. Collection of Rowland Miller, Louisville, KY.
• Eric Nehr (French), Calla 02, 2006. C-prints on aluminum.
• Eric Nehr (French), Calla 03, 2006. C-prints on aluminum.
• Eric Nehr (French), Calla 04, 2006. C-prints on aluminum.
• Eric Nehr (French), Calla 05, 2006. C-prints on aluminum.
• Catherine Opie (American), Jesse, 1995. C-print.
• Adriaan van der Ploeg (Dutch), Head Shots (Dutch/Belgian), 2007. 21 c-prints on aluminum.
• Adriaan van der Ploeg (Dutch), Head Shots (Chinese), 2008. 21 c-prints on aluminum.
• Miguel Angel Rojas (Colombian), David 6 & 12, 2005. Lambda prints.
• Jock Sturges (American), Adele, Montalivet, France, 1999. Gelatin silver print.
• Jock Sturges (American), Nikki: la Riviere Dronne, les Peintures, France, 2001. Gelatin silver print.
• Jock Sturges (American), Floss et Megan-Tara: Montalivet, France, 2006. Epson pigment print.
• Josephine Taylor (American), Bomb Landscape 1, 2006. Sumi ink, colored ink, gouache on paper.
• Nicola Vinci (Italian), Silenzio dittico (Silence diptych), 2007. Light on plexiglass.
• Bill Vuksanovich (Serbian), Ajay, 1990. Pencil on paper.
• Albert Watson (Scottish), Golden Boy, 6 yrs. Old, NYC, 1996. Gelatin silver print.
• Carrie Mae Weems (American), May Flowers, 2002. C-print.
• Sukran Moral (Turkish), Artista, 1994. Print on canvas mounted on chassis.

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