48 Finalists from the National Portrait Gallery's Outwin Boochever Contest

From rice to glitter, video and paint, these works reflect the best of contemporary portraiture



race, art, portrait

(Courtesy of the artist)



For Delia

Heidi Fancher

Building on her own archival research of the foundations of racism, Heidi Fancher posed herself as a slave named Delia who was the subject of a photograph taken 162 years earlier in an effort to restore her humanity to her in 2010.


Learn more about the competition and exhibition at the museum's page and on the Around the Mall blog.



 

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Comments (10)

This is an outstanding image! The model with her pose and expression. the concept of the image and the conversion to paint are all exceptional. This tells a story that is open to interpretation and is quite engaging as well as thought provoking.

"Night Raid" left me speechless. Wow.

I am looking at a portrait of David's father!

what creativity! What talent! Put them together with the right resources and what do you get? A mind boggling wonderful work of art!

Hard to believe that he is not right here next to me. I can almost feel his breath. Great!

Pastels are a very unforgiving art. That being said, this is a wonderful use of pastels. Values are used wisely,expression on the face and in stance is incredible. Salute,

Very serene and tender.

How utterly sad and haunting.

This portrait is so real looking I would actually go up and talk to it. Enough said.

I was burning up data on my cell, but I couldn't stop until I had examined and absorbed each one of these beautiful portraits. Thank you.



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