Persona Grata: Group exhibition

From the Fayum portraits and Renaissance masters to modernist innovations and contemporary digital practices, the portrait has served not merely to depict appearance, but to examine presence, character, and perception.

A portrait is never just a face. It captures the layered nature of a subject—outer form and inner world, social context and personal history. In the 20th century, artists redefined portraiture through new visual languages: Cubism fragmented the figure, Expressionism amplified emotion, and later movements such as hyperrealism and conceptual art introduced new levels of detail, irony, and reflection. Today, portraiture encompasses a wide range of formats and intentions, remaining a vital medium for engaging with themes of self-representation, cultural identity, gender, and visibility.

The exhibition Persona Grata brings together a group of internationally acclaimed artists whose work highlights the richness and adaptability of the portrait genre. Through sculpture, painting, photography, and mixed media, their practices present a broad spectrum of artistic sensibilities—from restraint to excess, from realism to distortion—offering a multilayered vision of the human figure in contemporary art.