The “portraits” exhibition, juried by Donna Garcia, was in the online gallery from August 16 to September 26, 2024.  Donna selected forty seven images from forty artist for the exhibition. Linda Plaisted’s image “Rose Red” received the Juror’s Award. Seveta Butko’s image “Alona” received the Director’s Award.

Juror’s Statement

There аre many different types of portraits: studio portraits, environmental portraits, conceptual portraits, self-portraits, personless portraits, and more.  The one commonality they share is that they should say something about the person being photographed, or the persona that you are creating/reflecting via the camera – the images in this exhibition truly reveal that deep and diverse richness of narrative that has the ability to connect with the viewer, in a way that can help them to know something that they didn’t know before.

Being a juror for this call for portraits allowed me to gauge the temperature of the “field” and witness thematic and formal trends that emerged across these submissions, which was incredibly insightful. Without a doubt, the conceptual threads always surprise me. Perusing hundreds of pictures in a concentrated period of time gives me a glimpse into the questions artists are posing to address and what is relevant for them right now.

I believe that the work here allows us to see how portraiture artists (traditional and non-traditional) see the world through the lens of human representation, whether it is the face of a joyful father, or the complicated relationship of two grandparents whose generational trauma still lingers. It also shows us how we, as artists, can push the boundaries of the definition of portraiture.  Can we utilize portraiture to connect with residual memory through a shadowy space once occupied by a loved on? Can we deconstruct then reconstruct the past through photographic portraiture archives to expose new truths? Can we find joy and common purpose in the faces of those around us? Can we understand the connection between us, as humans, and all living things through expressions of empathy?  These artists have shown us that the answer to these questions is “YES”!

Photography’s relationship with time and memory, grief, family, identity, compassion and community are among the various themes that flow through these tremendous submissions for portraiture. Some artists represent these ideas conspicuously while others touch on a number of them indirectly. Most importantly with each submission, what is invariably palpable is a genuine love of exploration through the medium of photography– its endless possibilities and rich potential to inspire and shape new perspectives of the world.

Donna Garcia
Director of Education and Programs – Griffin Museum
August, 2024

link to online exhibition