Sarah Kurz, All I Need, 2011. Oil on linen, 14” x 20".
Will Cotton, Cotton Candy Hannah, 2009. Will cotton is a friend and a delicious artist. He hand crafts the “icing” crowns that many of his subjects wear amid the cotton candy clouds or other sweet fantasy landscapes.
John Currin, Constance Towers, 2009. John Currin creates vivid portraits of beautiful though slightly distorted women.
Nir Hod, Genius, 2010. Nir Hod creates his creepy-cool Genius portraits by combining the features of children and adults, including sometimes his own features. Each genius has either a cigarette or a joint and a great sense of style.
Robin F. Williams, Neck Piece. A young artist, Robin portrays eccentrically costumed figures that fascinate and bewilder, mixing the 17th Century with neon hues and bizarre elements.
George Condo, Italian Woman, 2002. George Condo needs no introduction, but I will say this, his surreal and warped world is one you’ll want to experience.
John Sonsini, Byron, 2010. I love these portraits by John Sonisni, all of Mexican workers. I think it’s the thick brushwork and the figure’s piercing eyes that get me.
Maria Gimenez, Lissi, 2010. My friend Karline Moeller curated a solo show of her work recently at the Art Production Fun Lab, and I fell in love. The young artists could be from another era, creating amazing abstract expressionist paintings.
Christopher Milne, Betty & Bob, Harry Trickett (detail), 2008
. The talented Milne captures the sixties and it’s squeaky-clean perfection with hints of irony in his beautiful and crisp paintings. Oh and he’s an amazing guy to boot.
Lastly, I share an awesome portrait I found at the Garage Flea Market painted recently by an artist whose name I sadly cannot remember. So, if it’s yours, let us know…
Portraiture is back and cooler than ever. While it was once considered a lower art, as pieces were commissioned rather than created by the will of the artist, things have changed. Artists have re-appropriated portraiture for themselves, infusing their unique style and their own vision of reality. I’m not talking about the modernists’ reaction to formal portraiture that broke down and rebuilt the whole concept, or the artists since then who use new and unconventional media to test the limits of art. I’m referring to the artists who, in almost cyclical evolution, have returned to the painted portrait with new intent.
Referencing the conventions of the past but freeing the artist to abstract and distort within realism, painting itself seems to be experiencing a renaissance. But what is fascinating about portraits is how they capture the personalities of complete strangers or fabricated characters in such captivating ways, even if the figures are simply sitting and staring back at you.
While this has been happening over the past thirty years, this genre is really stirring today. Just as portraitists like Elizabeth Peyton, Chuck Close, and Marlene Dumas are experiencing a resurge of attention, young artists are exploring the subject, creating beautifully expressive representational pieces that are at once fresh and timeless. I present here a selection of current portrait artists who have either just snagged or continue to attract my attention whether creating realist, hyperrealist or abstracted works.
