Various Artists
True Likeness
Van Every Gallery
On View: October 29, 2020— March 28, 2021
Related Programs & Events
In Conversation: Wendy Red Star
November 12, 2020, 4:30 pm—5:30 pm
Join us via YouTube Live for a conversation with artist Wendy Red Star. The video will be posted at the top of our YouTube channel at the time of the event.
In Conversation: Exploring Outsider Artists in "True Likeness" with Tom Stanley and John Foster
November 16, 2020, 11:00 am—12:00 pm
Join us via YouTube Live for a conversation with John Foster and True Likeness co-curator Tom Stanley to learn more about Foster’s vernacular photography collection and other outsider artists in the exhibition, including Gene Merritt, Dan Robert Miller, and Sam Doyle. The video will be posted at the top of our YouTube channel at the time of the event.
In Conversation: Deborah Roberts
February 9, 2021, 5:00 pm—6:00 pm
Join us via YouTube Live for a conversation with artist Deborah Roberts to learn more about her artwork, including Venus the great, currently on view in True Likeness. To create her collages, Roberts often combines fragments of different features, skin tones, hairstyles, and clothing to imagine new, expansive notions of identity. The variations inherent in her collage materials highlight the complexity of Black subjecthood. Roberts says the “faces are demanding, they’re asking you to see their humanity and individuality.” The depicted young girls are often defiant, sassy, strong, and empowered, forging their own paths as they push back on constructs perpetuated within both white and Black communities. The video will be posted at the top of our YouTube channel at the time of the event.
The Drawing Room's Zoom Drawing Club with Bill Thelen
February 6, 2020, 11:00 am—12:00 pm
Join us via Zoom for a community drawing event with artist Bill Thelen. Thelen’s work on view in True Likeness, maximum joy, includes drawings inspired by conversations and connections made through his initiative, the Drawing Room's Zoom Drawing Club, an online meeting-place where like-minded, lonely drawers could connect and draw together every Saturday throughout the pandemic. Please RSVP to elharry@davidson.edu.
Community Photo Wall • Ongoing
October 29, 2020, 10:00 am—5:00 pm
In conjunction with True Likeness we are gathering photos of our community -- students, faculty, staff, alumni, townies and other supporters! Photos will be printed out and added to a display in the Visual Arts Center hallway near the Galleries. Tag your images #truelikenessexhibition when posting photos on Instagram, or send your images to us through direct message on Instagram or Facebook.
Public Viewing Appointments Available!
December 3, 2020, 10:00 am—3:00 pm
Though the Galleries have been closed to the public during the pandemic, a limited number of viewing appointments will be available to the general public on December 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 and January 7 and 8.
In Conversation: Endia Beal
February 16, 2021, 5:00 pm—6:00 pm
Join us via YouTube Live for a conversation with artist Endia Beal, whose artwork, Mock Interview, is part of our current exhibition. Beal's lecture will focus on four bodies of work, Office Scene, Can I Touch It, 9 to 5, and Am I What You’re Looking For? These works examine the personal and contemporary stories of women of color working within the corporate space, while addressing the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate hiring practices. The video link will be posted at the top of our YouTube channel at the time of the event.
DE&I Workshop with Endia Beal
February 18, 2021, 4:30 pm—6:30 pm
Beal's virtual DE&I workshop entitled, Artistic Introspective, will take place on February 18 from 4:30-6:30pm. The workshop is designed to use art as a teaching tool for acknowledging bias, promoting inclusion and becoming allies for one another. The main objectives of Beal's workshops are to strengthen relationships amongst colleagues, develop an appreciation for diverse perspectives, and examine the importance of empathy, vulnerability, and sharing personal experiences. Advanced registration required. Priority will be given to Davidson College students, faculty and staff. Email linewman@davidson.edu to register.
Portraits serve as expressions of identity, popular taste, social standing, and as documents of who, when, and where. Representing one’s self in the best light or seeing others in understandable terms are motives behind why we record images of each other, whether for rituals, documentation of events, art making, or as expressions of status.
True Likeness presents an exhibition of contemporary portraits from diverse makers in a variety of media including video, photography, painting, collage, installation, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. Artists, some familiar, others more on the fringe of the art world, hail from all over the United States. Their own identities, and those presented through their works, provide a snapshot of who we are as a country. As the exhibition took shape over the last two years, as overt and coded hate speech became congruent with one of the most divisive elections of our time, it became apparent that highlighting and celebrating diversity was paramount.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant mask mandate have prevented us from seeing the faces of others while in public spaces. Perhaps our inability to focus on superficial characteristics will enable us to instead reflect on our profound similarities as humans, a notion many of the artists included in True Likeness address through their art.
To learn more about each participant and to view our virtual tour, visit our expanded site here.
View the exhibition brochure below.
Participating artists:
Endia Beal, Antonius-Tín Bui, Sam Doyle, Amir H. Fallah, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Juan R. Fuentes, Raymond Grubb, Holly Keogh, Deborah Luster, Gene Merritt, Dan Robert Miller, John Monteith, Kameron Neal, Wendy Red Star, Deborah Roberts, Chris Sullivan, Bill Thelen, and Mickalene Thomas.
The Galleries will be open Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm and weekends from 12-4pm between October 29 and November 24, 2020. Between December 3, 2020 and January 8, 2021, the Galleries will be open to the public, for limited dates/times, by appointment only. Make an appointment here.
This exhibition was co-curated by Tom Stanley. Heartfelt thanks to all of our interns, as well as to Russ White, Graham McKinney, and Stephanie Cash.
The exhibition, programs, and brochure would not have been possible without the support of the Herb Jackson and Laura Grosch Gallery Endowment, Bacca Bacca Foundation Visiting Lecture and Artist Fund, Davidson College Friends of the Arts, and Stories Yet to be Told: Race, Racism, and Accountability, a Davidson College institutional initiative.
