Art is a beautiful way of self expression, and nothing gets people more inspired then personal life stories and experiences. For some artists pain, regret, sorrow, and anger are the inspiration, while for others it might be closure, satisfaction, hope, transformation or enlightement. Could be a combination of all these things, the interpretations are limitless really. This is some of the best work representing contemporary portreiture, from the National Portrait Gallery. Some might even speak to your own life. These are 10 of my personal favorites. What do you see...
Su Brain Tracts
"Through the use of scientific technology the artist was able to obtain images of her brain's fiber connections. The portrait was made by combining these with a woven self-portrait."
Modesty2
"An intimate self-portrait that looks back at the evolution from a young girlish figure to one that represents a life well-lived."
Portrait (Red Robe)
"Uninterested in the likeness of people, the artist focused on the sensation of individuality and wrestles with the symbolism of the artist's red robe, borrowed from an overwhelmingly male history of the profession."
Piñata
"When her doctor told her to paint her pain in 2010, Tina Mion imagined herself as a piñata whose contents had come spilling out."
Stonemason
"This portrait was made in admiration of the artist's friend and to honor the ordinary talents that our culture forgets."
Self-Portrait
"A self-portrait of the artist as she undergoes a second round of chemotherapy."
100 Pounds of Rice
"When Saeri Kiritani moved to the United States, she began to notice small details about herself she hadn't in Japan, including that she ate mostly rice. Though she wants to blend in, she also wants to appeal to her "natural existence," and the tension between the two helped her produce this 2010 self-portrait made of rice, rice noodles, glue and a wood and metal frame."
For Delia
"Building on her own archival research of the foundations of racism, Heidi Fancher posed herself as a slave named Delia who was the subject of a photograph taken 162 years earlier in an effort to restore her humanity to her in 2010."
Night Raid
"Louie Palu captured this moment in 2010 as a wounded soldier in a medevac helicopter after a night raid in Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan."
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