Having Swallowed a Mirror

Typically, a portrait captures the likeness, sensibilities and in some abstracted circumstances, essence of the subject-sitter through the hands, eyes and interpretive lens of the artist. In doing so, the subject becomes distilled through a filter of the artist's own experiences, knowledge, biases, understanding and self-perception. There are infinite versions of how to be perceived, and in a portrait, the sitter is how the artist sees them, edited with tools accumulated across a lifetime. Parts of a person are omitted as the artist sieves through their field of vision to create an approximation. There is no perfect replication; representation is corrupted by the artist's own conceits. In many ways, the practice of portrait making is a way of looking inward by looking outward. A portrait of someone else is also a portrait of the artist. Having Swallowed a Mirror brings together three early-career artists exploring contemporary portrait painting.