Self portrait

City Gallery, Southampton, UK

Featured work – Self 2003. Throughout history, artists have represented their own image or person in an enormous variety of ways. The ‘self portrait’ can reveal how artists perceive themselves or perhaps want to be perceived by others.

Artists can present both falsehoods and fantasies or affront the viewer with honesty. Indeed, in a culture saturated both by ‘reality TV’ and the sheen of slick marketing, the self-portrait can perhaps offer a degree of personal insight difficult within either of the latter.