The portraits of Boston-based painter Dana Clancy subvert the traditional relationship between subject and viewer. Her figures peer out of irregular forms and bright shapes through which viewer and portrait subject seem to exchange gazes. She says, “My paintings are about observing and being observed. In my portraits I… suggest the inner life of the subject while drawing the viewer’s attention to his or her own act of looking at the painting.”

With social networking websites becoming one of the most active environments for “looking” in our digital age, Clancy turned to Facebook to create a group portrait for her new installation, Network. She included only artists who had “friended” her in the short time after she joined Facebook in summer 2008.

The largest hexagonal shapes in her “network” depict, with a loose, sketchy quality, her closest friends, who sat for their portraits. The silhouettes and carefully modeled figures in smaller panels represent friends whom she knows less well, or who live too far away to sit for portraits. They were drawn from digital sources such as the subject’s own Facebook photo. Colors describe subnetworks of personal connections among members of the larger group. The lattice of pencil-drawn circles covering the wall reinforces the idea of interconnectedness among people who participate in the virtual space of social-networking sites.

Combining portraits drawn from life with portraits made from digital sources highlights the contrast between the immediacy of genuine human presence and the illusion of familiarity created by these websites. It also makes Network a rich and complicated representation of the ways in which individuals can present a carefully crafted version of their identity in these virtual environments.

Rachael Arauz, Guest Curator

Click here to download the gallery brochure for this exhibit. (PDF, 8.5×11, double-sided)