FACE VALUE
Familiarity Through Paint
This year’s Winter 2024 Section of DRPT-3023 Positioning the Portrait and DRPT-3007 Family Archive as Portrait, both taught by Ilene Sova.
FACE VALUE - Familiarity Through Paint will be on display in the ADA Slaight Gallery, 100 McCaul St, from April 2nd to April 8th. This exhibition is curated and executed by students in “Positioning the Portrait”. Come join us on April 4th 6-8pm for our opening, for a chance to experience these intimate artworks, as well as an opportunity to meet the artists.
- April 2nd to April 8th
- Opening reception: Thursday, April 4th, 6 to 8 pm
- Ada Slaught Gallery
100 McCaul St, 2nd Floor
How does one first view a portrait? FACE VALUE:
Familiarity Through Paint urges the viewer to look deeper and explore connections behind the work. The works in this exhibition materialize the essence of connection and internal expression. Artists put forward intimate and multilayered works that showcase their connection to the sitter. The complex relationship between subject and artist injects sentiment and depth into the portrait. FACE VALUE utilizes elements such as physical gesture and expression to convey familiarity through paint.
Project Description:
FACE VALUE: Familiarity Through Paint is a body of work put forward by third-year OCAD students. The artists in this exhibition explored painting portraiture in “Family Portrait as Archive” and “Positioning the Portrait”, which are both taught by Ilene Sova. In these classes, artists experimented with various painting materials, methods, and approaches while considering facial gestures, gazes and vantage points to construct subjective positionings. Artists were challenged conceptually as well as technically. Creating a relationship with the sitter plays an integral part in this exhibition; by diving into archival history or forming a new connection. These classes come together to express familiarity in a diverse exploration of personal portraiture.
Artists selected works that best represented their ability to connect with the sitter and portrayed them genuinely. Portraiture that fails to connect with the sitter falls flat and lacks authenticity. The complex relationship between the subject and the artist injects sentiment and depth into the portrait. By looking past the exterior, artists are challenged to not only represent a technical depiction, but something more than what's at face value. By understanding their subject, artists put more value on the individual and infuse life into their works.