PORTRAIT23: Identity

Arts Project Australia is excited to announce that APA artists Alan Constable, Cathy Staughton, Eden Menta and Mark Smith will feature in the National Portrait Gallery’s PORTRAIT23: Identity exhibition opening Friday 10 March.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait23: Identity is a major exhibition of new work from multi-award-winning contemporary Australian artists and collectives working across every state and territory.

Each APA artist worked in collaboration with an external artist to produce a portrait exploring the concept of identity. The portraits produced by these artists will feature in this exhibition alongside the APA artists’ own works.

Alan Constable will feature work alongside Andrew Curtis, Cathy Staughton will feature work alongside Clare Rae, Eden Menta will feature work alongside Janelle Low and Mark Smith will feature work alongside Ross Coulter.

PORTRAIT23: Identity is an exhibition of portraiture, but not as you know it.

In PORTRAIT23: Identity, award-winning contemporary Australian artists and collectives push the boundaries of traditional format.

This diverse collection features street art, textiles, performance, photography, ceramics, painting, drawing, soft sculpture, and bronze creations, all of which challenge the conventional limits of portraiture.

Many of these innovative works seamlessly blend into installations, videos, and animations, inviting you to step inside the portrait itself.

With the contributions of twenty-three remarkable artists and collectives, this exhibition explores the profound journey of self-representation, community, history, and modern society. These artists delve into deeply personal reflections on themes that resonate universally, including cultural knowledge, feminism, visibility and invisibility, activism, and the narratives of migration.

Portrait23 is an artistic celebration of the diversity and complexity of the self.

Visitors are asked to assume nothing, question everything and expect no answers.