Whitfield Lovell
The exhibition focuses specifically on the development of Kin, a recent series that is a distillation of the artist's concern with issue of self- and institutional representation. Kin is a series of portrait drawings on paper based on identification documentation such as passport, photo booth, and mug shots. This type of institutional document is designed to represent or classify the sitter in a markedly different manner than the staged photographic portraits Lovell used in other bodies of work. The static positioning, harsh lighting, and blank background that distinguish identification photographs are used by the artist to concentrate on the sitter's face, while his superbly precise draftsmanship allows him to tease out such intangibles as personality and emotional state in deft strokes of conté crayon.