Portraits exhibit reflection of pandemic
Genesis Tramaine’s “Nana said I could sit HERE!”
A group exhibition entitled “Painting Someone,” which gathers 16 artists, is in full swing at Almine Rech Shanghai.
The featured artists — Brian Calvin, Alejandro Cardenas, Genieve Figgis, Michael Hilsman, Jason Fox, Marcus Jahmal, Aaron Johnson, Allen Jones, Haley Josephs, Sam McKinniss, Cesar Piette, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Vaughn Spann, Phyllis Stephens, Genesis Tramaine and Chloe Wise — completed most of the works during this year’s pandemic lockdown.
Without models to pose in the studio, the artists came up with self-portraits or portraits of their friends and families, offering a panorama of faces lifted above the dread of the pandemic.
In “Quarantine, 2020,” by Marcus Jahmal, the show’s youngest artist, a black man with a single dreadlock dropping from his hat faces a nude woman beckoning him from across the canvas, separated by a single tree. The painting conveys a mixture of loneliness, frustration, sorrow and humor that has befallen the lovers during the time of COVID-19.
Genieve Figgis's "Queen and her family"
Rich in vibrant colors and macabre imagery, Irish artist Genieve Figgis’s “Queen and Her Family” reveals a dark sense of humor through faceless figures, foolishly grinning and ghoul-like creatures in loosely rendered forms, which seem vulnerable and insubstantial.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe is known for his vibrant portraits of black figures.
In his work “Isolation,” a young black man in blue sits in an orange sofa with purple wall behind. His figuration is built upon a palette where color becomes its own language of transformation.
With a wide range of bold bright hues, the artist uses pastel backdrops and numerous shades of orange, blue or pink in his oil paintings to connect with the black subjects, and bridge his experiences of growing up in Ghana and living in the United States.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s “Isolation”
The value of a painted portrait in the age of mass media today may seem tarnished or devalued, but these artists demonstrate that the “face” is an apt vehicle for a number of issues, both social and aesthetic.
They blur the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, take the best from both and merge them into fascinating and challenging paintings.
Exhibition info
Dates: Through December 26 (closed on Sundays and Mondays), 11am-7pm
Venue: Almine Rech Shanghai
Address: 2/F, 27 Huqiu Rd
