Perceptions of Self - Art Exhibition

By John Wolfer and H. Michael Sanders, Curators

Our sense of self is built on the fertile ground of our experience. Family life, personal relationships, personality, self-confidence, values, presence and absence, strength and weakness, and time: all of these aspects of the individual are questioned as we gaze at ourselves and seek to understand who we are and what we are about.

To some degree, we all see what we are predisposed to look for, which is to say we are all looking at the world around us with a measure of preconception. The human figure, and specifically our own face, is a subject about which we have perhaps the most preconceptions and the most familiarity. The ubiquitous “selfie” of our contemporary online environment stands as a reflexive testament to such familiarity and preconceptions.

However, the serious self-portrait has always been a challenge for visual artists to confront from a vantage point of personal discovery in an effort to explore both the physicality and the psychology of the self. Students involved in this exhibition were asked to confront these preconceptions about the self and utilize light, feeling, mood, and the illusion of space to render their own image in a realistic, yet thoughtful manner. In the process, perhaps they surprise themselves by revealing facets of the self previously unknown.

Foundation Drawing I Students | Art & Visual Communication

Photography I Students | Electronic Media Communications

The UC Blue Ash Art Gallery is supported by the Office of the Dean and the departments of Art & Visual Communication and Electronic Media Communications. This exhibition is curated by H. Michael Sanders and John Wolfer. Gallery publications are edited by H. Michael Sanders and designed by Michael Ziepfel. John Wolfer is gallery director.

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