CONFIRMED TOURING DATES

The first public exhibition of the complete collection was shown at

Glen Eira City Council Galleries,

Melbourne 8–25 March, 2007

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Victorian Artists Society

Book Launch

December 14-16, 2007

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Bundaberg Regional Gallery Qld

January 9 - February 17, 2008

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Wangaratta Echibitions Gallery, Victoria 

29 March - 27 April 2008 

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LaTrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria

30 November 2009 - 19 Jan 2010

About Face is an original concept and creation by a group of six Melbourne-based professional artists who have worked together over the past two years to complete a conceptual portraiture exhibition of 36 large scale unframed works on canvas.

In About Face each artist painted a self portrait plus a portrait of each of the other artists. The exhibition comprises 36 interrelated portraits in which six groups of six single-subject images meld to a gestalt of six different yet unified individuals.

Parallel to the exhibition there is an education component that could be offered to local schools and art students as part of a touring exhibition in Victorian Regional Galleries and interstate locations.

The Rationale
Portrait exhibitions are not new but this exhibition moves beyond the tradition style of portrait exhibitions in which many different artists hang a single painting of their elected subject (often that of a celebrity or public figure) whose public image is generally the focus of the painting.

In this way the portraits raise interesting questions of what we see in one another and of what we see as ourselves. They challenge the viewer to seek the nature of this relationship between artist and subject, appearance and reality, surface and depth in our interactions with each other and our inner self.

 

The Artists of fusi6n
Each member of this group is an independent, professional, multi-award winning artist with a background of teaching, demonstrating, judging, and exhibiting. They have extensive experience in solo exhibitions as well as selection in national and overseas exhibitions and competitions including the prestigious

$30000, Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize  (view Raelene Sharp's 2006 award winning painting)

The Exhibition
The works are unframed canvas and range in size from one meter square to larger, with all canvases being limited to one side no larger than 152cm (5 ft). An average size would be about 122 x 152/183cm (4 x 5/6ft).

The exhibition offers a unique approach to contemporary realist portraiture and has much to engage the causal viewer, the art lover and the artist. It has a highly viewer friendly feel and will be a very suitable component for discussion and/or study with art students of all levels.

We are happy to work with galleries to offer an educational component to local schools and art students attending the Regional Gallery in which it is touring.

For any information contact

Ivor Edwards
Project Manager, About Face