Art and The Human Face
In the exhibition, the face is used as a "lens" to dissect the constructed and fabricated foundation of human identity through their portrait. Each of the artists, more than 30 in name, through a variety of mediums highlight the face as a vehicle for human expression, feeling, thought and connection as well as identity and adversity — topics each have faced and battled in their careers and personal lives, and here channeled into their work.
Hal Bromm, Founder of Hal Bromm Gallery, presented important early shows of contemporary artists in the 70s and 80s, including the presentation of Keith Hering’s first solo exhibition in 1981. Established in 1976, his 10 Beach Street gallery has held New York City’s most historic exhibitions for contemporary artists to showcase the depth of talent in Downtown Manhattan at the time.
In the first installment, Faces I, displayed a concentration on facial expressions and images to disagree with forms of vanity and intellect in classic portraiture. Instead, the work is an acknowledgement of duality as the human condition and contrast between inner emotion and outward performatives. The work depicts expression with subjective emphasis on the difficulty to merge opposing identities, like gender, oppression, choice, and anonymity in rejection to the restraint of Classicism.
The Faces II exhibition will be available for view at Hal Bromm Gallery until March 2023.
