“. . . infinite possibilities and multi-layered approaches”
“The title is significant as it captures the exhibition’s focus on the notion of looking at or engaging with portraiture, and how viewers observe, or connect with the subjects portrayed,” curator Diane Soumilas tells me about Look: Contemporary Australian Portraiture. “The role of the audience in the viewing, or interpretation of a portrait, is integral to the exhibition as they bring their own experiences and emotions into their understanding of a portrait.”
Featuring more than fifty works by nine artists – Yvette Coppersmith, Julie Dowling, Graeme Drendel, Prudence Flint, Julia Gutman, Lewis Miller, Michael Vale, Peter Wegner and Marcus Wills – the exhibition expands on the dynamic conversation that exists around contemporary portraiture in Australia.
“I researched the work of contemporary artists who engaged with portraiture, many of whom were either winners or finalists in major portraiture awards such as the Archibald Prize, and the Doug Moran Portraiture Prize,” Soumilas says about the selection process. “I engaged in a conversation with the nine artists and selected work across different media that offered diverse approaches to portraiture, with the aim to explore the synergies and contrasts between the works and create a meaningful and captivating experience for the viewer.”
Lewis Miller, Portrait of Chloe, 2024, oil on Belgian linen, 40.5 × 51cm. Courtesy the artist, Australian Galleries, Melbourne/Sydney and Phillip Bacon Galleries, Queensland
The exhibition unpacks themes of gender and identity, capturing a rich diversity of faces and people ranging from artistic, creative or cultural identities to faces from everyday life. “Each artist brings their own unique vision, perspectives, visual language, and voice to this exhibition,” Soumilas says, “provoking important conversations and the power to connect the viewer with broader issues.
“Ideas around personal and cultural histories, female empowerment, storytelling and the legacies of colonisation resonate in selected works.” The exhibition providing “a platform for the investigation of the infinite possibilities and multi-layered approaches to portraiture informed by direct observation, imagination and collaboration.”
Images: 1) Marcus Wills, Requiem (J.R), 2020, oil on linen, 288 × 192cm. Courtesy the artist; 2) Prudence Flint, Wash, 2015, oil on linen, 108 × 90cm. Collection of Castlemaine Art Museum. Courtesy the artist and Fine Arts, Sydney; 3) Michael Vale, Sierra Ferrell, 2023, oil on linen, 182 × 121cm. Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery
A key examination of the exhibition is the relationship between artists and sitters and the richness of the shared experience, which Soumilas says is “integral” to portraiture. When asked to expand on the relationship between artists and sitters and the value of this exhibition for those of us in the viewing position, Soumilas tells me: “Many of the works in the exhibition capture the intimate relationship or connection with the artist’s sitters – friends, family members, and artists, musicians, writers or filmmakers from their social milieux.
The exhibition informs how we as viewers, interact with the sitters portrayed. The power of the gaze (averted or direct) and the dynamic between the artist and sitter, is open to the viewer to imagine or evoke a deep connection.”
Part of the enduring public affection for portraiture in contemporary Australia is, in Soumilas’ words, its “capacity to generate empathy and provoke discussion and debate.” With such variety of works on show here, and such care taken in curating the artists to take part, one does not need to look far for meaningful articulations of and on the human experience to emerge and to resonate.
Dr Joseph Brennan is a Lambda Literary Award-nominated author based in Tropical North Queensland.
Glen Eira City Council Gallery
1 November 2024 to 12 January 2025
Victoria
Originally published in print – Art Almanac, November 2024 issue, pp. 30–32
