As we noted eight years ago, when Manifest last approached the theme of portraiture, technology has accelerated our retreat into the head, encouraging ‘portraiture‘ on a mass scale through social networks and their flood of selfies. Facial recognition tools sort our photos of friends and family by face. Video calls fix our attention on the front of the human head. A premium has been placed on visual identity. The center of our humanity has coalesced into the mind, behind the face. When we think of one another, we begin, almost always, with the face.
Recognition matters. Throughout art history, the artist’s ability to capture not only a likeness but the character, the spirit, if you will, of the subject has defined entire careers. The portrait remains one of art’s most enduring and demanding subjects: a negotiation between observation and interpretation, between who the subject is and what the artist sees.
With this in mind, we again invite artists to submit works that address the portrait. All interpretations and explorations are welcome—traditional and non-traditional approaches in any media, self-portraits or portraits of others, singular figures or groups, and beyond.
This exhibit carries no expectation of type or style. Submissions may range from the most traditional to the most conceptual, abstract, or experimental. The theme is very much open to each artist’s interpretation.
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