Bell-Roberts Art Gallery Hosts : 'About Face'

Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:25

Cape Town, SA - Bell-Roberts gallery is proud to host About Face, an exhibition inspired by the global resurgence of portraiture and painting.  A group exhibition curated by Suzette Bell-Roberts.  On view until 12 August, 2006.

Of all the art genres portrait painting is, arguably, the most loaded.  Through the centuries it has been about “fixing” the face, capturing likeness, immortalising the aging and providing a public glimpse of a private life.

In ‘About Face’, the portrait has become the gateway to the exploration of the relationship between identity, consumption, commerce, mass media, and contemporary culture.  Celebrated South African artists Cameron Platter, Nigel Mullins, Norman O’Flynn, Paul du Toit, Sanell Aggenbach and Tanya Poole were invited to use the genre both as a form of self and societal reflection. 

From the frivolous and potentially disjunctive practices of consumerism to the nostalgic celebration of history and tradition the exhibiting artists explore and interrogate that most hallowed, sometimes hollow, of genres.  The result is a provocative “face-off”.

Visit Bell-Roberts Art Gallery in Cape Town : http://www.bell-roberts.com/