URBANITE

URBANITE returns inspired by our Season of Portraits. Notions of identity will be playfully unpacked during this evening music, signature bevies and interactive projects. Longshanks, Canoe Brewpub, Portrait Booth --- good times.

Beyond Likeness: Contemporary Works from Library and Archives Canada explores the evolving concept of portraiture from more traditional representations of likeness to works that challenge the conventions of the genre. In examining issues of history, popular culture, autobiography and perception of self, the works demonstrate that identity is complex, constructed and unfixed.

Contemporary portraiture goes beyond the traditional capturing of likeness, immortalizing, or providing a public glimpse of a private life. The portrait has become an articulation of the changing concepts of identity, both individual and collective. Together, the works in the exhibition form a narrative which reveals how human character is shaped by personal biography, engaging the artist, the subject and the viewer in an active construction of meaning.

The exhibition includes works by 23 contemporary artists including works by Irene F. Whittome, Jane Ash Poitras, Pascal Grandmaison, Lucie Chan and Arnaud Maggs. The subjects of these portraits range from known figures, such as writer Margaret Atwood, Governor General Michaëlle Jean, artist Bill Reid, musician Melissa Auf der Maur, filmmaker Deepa Mehta; and lesser known figures such as the residents of Richmond, British Columbia.

By exploring the various layers of interpretation of contemporary portraiture, the exhibition is meant to inspire and empower visitors to form their own assessments of how they perceive images of others and how they would chose to project their own identity.

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TICKETS: Advance tickets are available online at www.urbanite.eventbrite.com, and then will be sold at the door the night of the event. Tickets $15 (or $11 for members)

Venue contact information:

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

250-384-4171 ext.0

info@aggv.ca

www.aggv.ca