# data[].attributes.body
Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful, such as royalty. The portraits were mainly made to capture a likeness of the subjects. Today, portrait paintings can be commissioned and made for everyone. At the same time, portraits are painted not only to depict the likeness, but also to express the artists themselves, or to convey an idea. In addition to painting, portraits can also be made in other media such as prints, photography, and digital media. In this exhibition, we will explore contemporary portraits with traditional mediums such as watercolor, oil, and silkscreen. We also will explore how these traditional mediums are used to represent skill, and to express ideas.

In this exhibition,  I chose to include Leng Jun, Reina Yamada, and Erik Hougen’s works because they are very skill based and should be celebrated.

Leng Jun is a Chinese contemporary artist who is a master of hyperrealism. He is known for his detailed oil paintings of women, where every wisp of hair and fiber of clothing is rendered to perfection. Leng Jun has always been a controversial artist in China, because many people argue that the painting is meaningless when it looks like a picture. However, Leng Jun is just known for his hyperrealistic paintings. Hyperrealistic art is not all his art.

Reina Yamada is a Japanese contemporary artist. She is most known for her realistic style of portraits in watercolor.

Erik Hougen is a contemporary artist who works on silkscreen, oil painting, and watercolor.  What is amazing about Erik’s two watercolor paintings in this exhibition is that those paintings have an oil painting or digital painting texture, which is hard to achieve by only using watercolor.

Yuxin Zhou enjoys creating art of any subject that makes her happy. She often draws and paints realistic portraits in many mediums, but her favorite is watercolor.

I like the different ideas expressed in the works of Andy Warhol, Amy Sherald, Yue Minjun,  and Jenny Dubnau, and that is why they are included in this collection.

Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. In Marilyn Diptych , the left colorful side represents Marilyn Monroe’s life as a celebrity, and the right black and white side represents her death and fades away.

Amy Sherald is an American painter. She works mostly as a portraitist depicting African Americans in everyday settings. Her style is simplified realism, involving staged photographs of her subjects.

Yue Minjun is a contemporary Chinese artist. He is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings while he is frozen in laughter. He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolor and prints. His paintings depict a man with eyes closed and a big smile with different gestures. He tries to express the idea that life is suffering and pain, so he depicts people who are smiling and laughing on the face, but deep down in the heart, they are negative and empty.

Jenny Dubnau is a contemporary realistic portrait painter. The painting, Dictator, is different from all other paintings of hers. This painting only depicts part of a face, which is an opened talking mouth on a big fat face with a double chin. This painting is very expressive and political.

# data[].attributes.body
The boy with the big fish

2016
Oil on Canvas

# data[].attributes.body
Mushroom cloud
2002
Acrylic on canvas

# data[].attributes.body
White clouds in blue sky
2013
Oil on Canvas

# data[].attributes.body
Shea
2022
Watercolor on postcard

# data[].attributes.body
Dictator
2016
Oil on Canvas

# data[].attributes.body
Hannah
2022
Oil on canvas paper

# data[].attributes.body
Mona Lisa
2004
oil

# data[].attributes.body
Amelia
2019
Watercolor on paper

# data[].attributes.body
Blue & Yellow
2019
Watercolor on paper

# data[].attributes.body
Keigo

2009

Watercolor on Paper

# data[].attributes.body
Erik
2009
Watercolor on paper

# data[].attributes.body
Mao
1972
Acrylic & silkscreen on canvas

# data[].attributes.body
Marilyn Diptych
1962
Acrylic & silkscreen on canvas