The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is known for capturing people’s likenesses in its incredible displays of photographs, drawings and paintings. However, in its latest exhibition Portrait23: Identity, on until 18 June, the institution is redefining what portraiture means.
The free exhibition sees portraiture jump from the canvas and into the third dimension as artists have been given free-reign to use methods beyond paint, pencil and picture. The artists have incorporated street art, suspended textile, performance, bronze, ceramics and soft sculpture in their pieces.
Three years in the making to celebrate three decades of the Gallery, 23 artists and collectives from each state and territory were invited to submit a piece. Each piece was created in response to the broad notion of identity, created through different methods and mediums, inviting the viewer for an intimate look into the world of the creator.
Spreading across four galleries, the exploration of portraiture features works from acclaimed Australian artists. These include Sally Smart, who has received international acclaim for her immersive installations, often featuring collages, textile pieces, videos and puppetry. This exhibition features ten puppet-style sculptures created in wax, plaster and bronze.
Happy Australian, by Thai-born artist Vipoo Srivilasa, is another ten-piece sculpture project. Inspired by the drawings people sent to Srivilasa depicting themselves at their happiest during the pandemic, the Melbourne-based artist used these happy moments to create ceramic portraits.
Some of Kate Benyon’s works were seen by locals when they illuminated the sides of the Gallery during the Enlighten Festival. An interactive component of the exhibition will see visitors able to create figures with ancient and futuristic influences with the artist’s motifs including scales, eyes, botanicals and hands.
From up north, Yuwi man Dylan Mooney presents hand-drawn portraits of those found in his Central/North Queensland arts community, created as way to highlight the importance of language and communication and how it has been passed down through families, communities and culture.
Driving the exhibition is First Nations curator and Meriam woman Rebecca Ray. She says while identity has always been a core feature of portraiture, these new works mark a shift, one that recognises the power of storytelling that the genre can have.
“What we see are deeply personal evocations of themes that resonate collectively – cultural knowledge, the body, feminism, visibility and invisibility, activism, community, legacies of ongoing colonisation and journeys of migration,” Ray says.
See the works in Potrait23: Identity on display at the National Portrait Gallery until 18 June; portrait.gov.au
Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
