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related info › Creating Identity-Atrium 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

Street Level 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.

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–Street Level Gallery

• Burt Barr (American), Roz, 2004, Single-channel video with sound, running time 5:40 minutes.
• Jose Maria Cano (Spanish), Barack Obama (from The Wall Street One Hundred), 2008. Paraffin wax, pigment, encaustic on canvas.
• Chuck Close (American), Kara, 2008. Pigment print from a daguerreotype.
• Chuck Close (American), Self-Portrait (anamorphic), 2007. Engraving with embossment on handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder.
• Chuck Close (American), Phil (anamorphic), 2007. Engraving with embossment on handmade paper, polished stainless steel cylinder. Collection of Jim Gray, Lexington, KY.
• Ain Cocke (American), Das Geheimnis des Garten, 2009. Oil on canvas.
• Alain Declercq (French), R.I.P./Sarkozi, 2007. 4500 bullets in a pline wood.
• Gaela Erwin (Louisville-based), Self Portrait as St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 2003. Oil on panels. Courtesy of the artist.
• Gaela Erwin (Louisville-based), Self Portrait as Mater Dolorosa, 2003. Oil on panels.
• Gaela Erwin (Louisville-based), Self Portrait as St. Wilgefortis, 2004. Oil on panels. Courtesy of the artist.
• Karine Giboulo (Canadian), All You Can Eat - Electronic Village, 2008. 3 mixed media dioramas enclosed in plexiglass.
• Germán Gómez (Spanish), Drawn VI (from Drawn series), 2007. Mixed media drawing.
• Germán Gómez (Spanish), Drawn VIII (from Drawn series), 2007. Mixed media drawing.
• Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung (Chinese), In G.O.D. We Trust, 2009. HD 1080p30 single-channel video with sound, running time: 5:00 minutes.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Alice Glass (Lyndon B Johnson), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Kay Summersby (Dwight D. Eisenhower), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Lucia Gilbert Calhoun (James A Garfield), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Lucy Page Mercer (Franklin D Roosevelt), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Maria Halpin (Grover Cleveland), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Monica Lewinsky (Bill Clinton), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), Venus (George Washington), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Annie Kevans (French, England-based), William Rufus DeVane King (James Buchanan), 2009. Oil on paper.
• Dinh Q Le (Vietnamese), Texture of Memory #9, 2000. Hand embroidery on cloth.
• Dinh Q Le (Vietnamese), Texture of Memory #15, 2000. Hand embroidery on cloth.
• McCallum & Tarry (American), Booker T. Holmes (arrest #7407), 2008. Oil on canvas and toner on silk.
• McCallum & Tarry (American), Cora McHaney (arrest #7051), 2008. Oil on canvas and toner on silk.
• McCallum & Tarry (American), P. E. Conley (arrest #7088), 2008. Oil on canvas and toner on silk.
• Zanele Muholi (South African), Nomonde Mbusi, 2007. Gelatin silver print.
• Zanele Muholi (South African), Sindi Shabalala, 2007. Gelatin silver print.
• Vik Muniz (Brazilian), Pictures of Junk: The Education of Cupid, after Correggio,, 2006. C-print.
• Julia Page (American), Heir Apparent, 2005. Video installation, running time 6:55 minutes loop.
• Chris Radtke (Louisville-based), Reach, 2008. Lightening seared oak and shattered tempered glass.
• Andres Serrano (American), Bodybuilders (Lesa Lewis I), 1998. Cibachrome, silicone, plexiglass, wood.
• Yinka Shonibare (British, Nigerian-born), The Age of Enlightenment – Gabrielle Emile Le Tonnelier de Bretruil, 2008. Life-size fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, mixed media. Collection of Laura Lee Brown, Steve Wilson, and Jim Gray.
• Yinka Shonibare (British, Nigerian-born), The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (America), 2008. C-print mounted on aluminum. Collection of Jim Gray, Lexington, KY.
• Yinka Shonibare (British, Nigerian-born), The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Europe), 2008. C-print mounted on aluminum.
• T. J. Wilcox (American), Jackie on Skorpios, 2007. Archival inkjet print on watercolor paper, single-channel video, running time 2:48 minutes.
• Kehinde Wiley (American), The Prophet and the King II (Columbus), 2006. Oil on canvas.
• Mickalene Thomas (American), Oh Mickey, 2008. Monitor in artist's frame, single channel video, rhinestone and acrylic on panel.
• Mickalene Thomas (American), Portrait of Qusuquzah, 2008. Mounted c-print.

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2010 Exhibitions