Although the Centenary Venice Biennale has a number of faces, the primary one is to represent the face of contemporary art through international participation of 43 countries at their official pavilions.
Australia now has an embryonic National Portrait Gallery in five small rooms, one larger room and three corridors in Old Parliament House, Canberra. Photos of the opening and the inaugural exhibition 'About Face'.
It goes without saying that for a woman to make a self-portrait, a self-representation, a different world of considerations will be required than if a man entered the same quest. The weight of history, of tradition, the idea of 'truthfulness' and women's unreliability: must I go on?
Exhibition review performance art Relatives/Friends/Victims
Safe Chamber
One was Vicious
Queenbitchery First Site Program,
Come Out Festival
Lion Arts Theatre
29 -31 March 1995
The recent revival of portraiture may not be unconnected to the technologies now available which allow artists to appropriate and manipulate images. Artists discussed include Wendy Mills, Adrienne Harris, Caroline Lewens, Regis Lansac, Anna Hurley and Deborah Mooney.
Examines the fate of portrait painting in the twentieth century....the critical focus of contemporary art is undoubtedly elsewhere...Examined with reference to the portraits of artists Mike Parr, Matthys Gerber, Vicente Butron