I don’t know about you, but I absolutely abhor having my picture taken – the one of me at the bottom of this page that looks like a portrait was actually taken on the sly in a bar when I was half cut watching football, and yet for some reason I still get grief for being a poseur. There’s a lot to be said for daft cartoon avatars.
It’s beyond me why anyone would let their mugshot be displayed in a gallery setting, but luckily for curator Adam Carr of MOSTYN gallery, not everyone is so bashful – some of the subjects (who include Ed Ruscha and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo) of this photographic collection have even written a response to their image, and none of them are cease and desist letters. These responses form an important part of Dear Portrait, adding another layer of insight into the shot and increasing the dialogue between viewer and image. The collection has a broad scope, expanding on the traditional ideas of portraiture and where the boundaries of the genre lie and featuring a whole host of talent, including Carsten Höller, Wolfgang Tillmans and Loris Gréaud to name but three. The Llandudno gallery is showing the exhibition until 13 October.
Ryan Gander
Portrait of Spencer Anthony Somewhere Between 1970 – 1973, 2003
A black and white photographic portrait of
Spencer Anthony taken sometime between 1970 and 1973.
© Ryan Gander. Courtesy the artist.
Courtesy, MOSTYN
Loris Gréaud & Lee Ranaldo
THINK LOUD, 2009
Courtesy: Loris Gréaud, Greaudstudio,
Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris.
Photo: Courtesy MOSTYN
David Lamelas
Portrait of Lynda Morris, London Friends, 1974
Courtesy of the artist and
Sprüth Magers Berlin London.
Mungo Thomson
Antenna Baldessari, 2002
Custom car accessory 2″ DIA.
Courtesy the artist
Wolfgang Tillmans
Princess Julia Berlin, 2011
c-type print
Courtesy Princess Julia collection,
the artist & Maureen Paley, London.
Carsten Holler
Moi-Même-Soi-Même (Myself, Oneself), 1997
Courtesy the artist and
Collection Gensollen, Marseille.
Ryan Gander
Portrait of Mary Aurory 1972, 2003
A black and white photographic portrait of
Mary Aurory taken sometime between 1970 and 1973.
© Ryan Gander. Courtesy the artist.
