Black Book

By Chloe Shaar

A new portrait exhibition, Yours Truly, opened at Nahmad Contemporary on Wednesday in New York. Curated by Eleanor Cayre, the group exhibition features non-traditional self portraits from over fifty living artists, including Rita Ackermann, Isa Genzken, Wade Guyton, Arthur Jafa, Heji Shin, Martine Syms, Wolfgang Tillmans, Salman Toor, Jordan Wolfson, and Jonas Wood, among others.

Spanning multiple mediums including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, the exhibition plays with the idea of self-perception – the portraits offer an inside look into how the artists view themselves as people, while also depicting the intimate environments that inevitably inspire their work. 

Throughout the exhibition, you’ll see close up self-portraits, painted nude portraits, an image of a Neutrogena bottle, a black pawn on a chess board, and even a decomposing bronze hair weave in Martine Syms piece, Sex On The Beach. Maggie Lee’s piece, Sassy, is a photocopy collage on magazine paper with Swarovski crystals, jewelry, a metrocard, googly eyes, and images of mary jane cat shoes. This cheeky ode to girlhood uses relatable items to set the scene of Lee’s everyday life as a 30 something New York woman artist.   

Each artist’s personal identity plays a heavy role within their portrait, as their experiences and different backgrounds add to the reflection of self and current state within the world. All from diverse backgrounds and cultures, with American, Australian, British, Canadian, Chinese, Danish, German, Indian, Japanese, Pakistani, Swedish, and Swiss artists across all age ranges, the self-portraits explore how identity can be both so singular, yet relatable.