We are thrilled to announce the inclusion of Andrea Bowers, Lavaughan Jenkins, Mario Joyce, Robert Pruitt, Deborah Roberts, Gio Swaby, and Kiriakos Tompolidis in the exhibition Icons, Archetypes, and Portraits, at the North Dakota Museum of Art opening November 6, 2025 through January 25, 2026.
The exhibition features several recent acquisitions and promised gifts by gallery artists, and poses a fundamental question: how does a work of art invoke the human presence? While portraiture often accomplishes this task by presenting a faithful visual likeness of its subject, some works in the exhibition reference their subjects more obliquely, focusing on materials like hair, bone, jewelry, or clothing. Many of the works featured dismantle portraiture’s historic allegiance to the ruling class, and instead present richly visualized homages to people traditionally overlooked or misrepresented by art history.