Half Art
CHRIS THURMAN: Defining art and finding where it lives
A group painting exhibition curated by Teresa Lizamore examines art in the age if narcissism, technology, and the selfie
WE ARE all image-makers now. Videos, GIFs and memes — almost everyone has the technology and the appetite to create them.The traditional genres are also available at the touch of a button: still life (this-is-what-I’m-eating photos constitute the most common subgenre), landscape (this is where I am on holiday) and portraiture (mostly kids and cats).Above all, we specialise in self-portraits. Add a filter, a caption, perhaps a hashtagged artist’s statement, and voila!Where does this leave visual artists who want to work in a medium other than smartphone photography? What does it mean to be a painter in the age of the selfie? Do we need to shift our assumptions of what it is to "portray" a person?Such questions lie behind #selfie, a group painting exhibition curated by Teresa Lizamore (at Lizamore & Associates, 155 Jan Smuts Avenue Parkwood, until September 23).Some of the artists’ responses to these questions are earnest, even slightly despairing; others adopt a wry, ironic response ...
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