Self-ish

Modern Eden Gallery proudly presents Self-ish, our annual portrait invitational. Every year we challenge a select group of artists with a particular theme, one which plays on the history and pageantry of the painted portrait. This year’s theme invites artists to consider the self-portrait through a modern lens.

The self portrait is perhaps the most recognizable and challenging mode of portraiture, for it reveals the artist. Long held as an academic standard, the self portrait has been over time been quietly resigned to the classroom. Participating artists were posed the the following questions:

• What reactions can a painted self-portrait provoke in a selfie dominated culture?
• As visual artists, what parts of ourselves can be communicated in symbols, or through metaphor?
• Can we re-imagine the self-portrait outside of the academic approach?

The exhibition challenges participating artists to re-imagine the self-portrait outside of tradition, and yet with traditional tools. The result is an incredible collection of works that showcase each artist’s unique style and their imaginative, symbolic, idealized, or non-representational versions of self.

Featuring self-ish portraits by Adam Caldwell, Akira Beard, Alec Huxley, Amy Minchew, Ania Tomicka, Bradley Platz, Brian R Donnelly, Carly Janine Mazur, Carrie Ann Baade, Catherine Moore, Chris Sheridan, Daniel J Valadez, Delphyne V., Edith Lebeau, Emilio Villalba, Erica Calardo, Erich J Moffitt, Henry Schreiber, Jacqueline Gallagher, Jasmine Worth, Jaxon Northon, Julie Filipenko, Kristen Margiotta, Lacey Bryant, Lara Dann, Laura Buss, Leilani Bustamante, Maj Askew, Mandy Tsung, Matthew Robertson, Primary Hughes, Rebecca Mason Adams, Robert Bowen, Sandra Yagi, Sergio Lopez, Terry Ribera, and more!