A Portrait Show

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Alex Bierk, "Amanda," 2019

oil on linen over panel, 8" x 10"

This exhibition opens at VIVIANEART Saturday, November 16th, 2019 with an afternoon reception from 2 through 5 PM. Artist Alex Bierk will be in attendance, with an artist conversation scheduled for 3PM. 

VIVIANEART is proud to present “A Portrait Show”, a present day exploration of an age-old genre. Identity seems a particularly charged topic as we move through these early decades of the 21st century. Today’s portrait artists have an opportunity to impact current considerations of identity as it relates to race, gender, sexual identity and the politics of each.

The five artists included in this group exhibition, Alex Bierk, Erik Olson, Kris Knight, Tyler Bright Hilton and Winnie Truong, are all impactful Canadian art influencers in their own right. While portraiture has shifted and changed over time, what has not changed is that the most successful pieces are not only skilled works, but also socially relevant, innovative and personal in some way to the maker. These artists bring this caliber of portraiture to the fore. Whether the deeply intimate and emotionally charged hyper-real paintings of Alex Bierk, the colourful, abstracted character studies of Erik Olson, or the oft fictional character explorations of Winnie Truong, Kris Knight and Tyler Bright Hilton, they endeavor to delve into self, other and ultimately, the identity of each.