Portraits of the Iconic and the Mundane comprises Kim Frohsin’s most recent paintings, exploring instantly recognizable numbers, symbols, and commercial packaging for branded products. Typically numbers express quantity, but in these paintings they revert to forms abounding with layers of color, multiple linear elements, and purposeful splatters. The work expands on the artist’s thesis that the detritus of everyday life can be a source for telling portraiture.
Portrait Landscape has been a yearlong project by artist Claire Pasquier, in which individuals were encouraged to connect with the artist via Facebook to have their portrait painted. In what can be read as a relational aesthetics piece, the artwork draws attention to the encounter – an opportunity often missed in our modern world, as Pasquier describes it: “San Francisco is a small-big city, where people from all over the world seem to crisscross. The idea of this project came to me in Paris after I opened my workshop gallery. The window overlooked a tiny busy street. I watched all the people go by but never stop; it was like the halls in the metro. I felt the need to communicate with all these people and break the protective and indifferent walls that we build when we live in big cities.” The portraits will be exhibited at the Artists Gallery along with the work station where Pasquier painted over 100 portraits.
Winni Wintermeyer’s photographic portraits range from the constructed to the emotional, some of them carefully crafted, others captured in a passing moment. At the core they all deal with the same question of what makes a portrait. Often he eliminates elements that we’ve become accustomed to in traditional portraiture, like faces, and provides the viewer with a starting point to create their own narrative. He experiments by adding and subtracting to the surroundings the subject is placed in to change the scope of information and adds mystery by juxtaposing environmental images. Stripped down to the close-up of a person’s face he strives to tell a story about the dynamics between photographer and subject, a tension that can create fiction instead of produce a likeness.