An exhibition of portraits from the collection of the Durban Art Gallery titled About Face is running until the end of January, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines portraiture as a ‘representation or delineation of a person, especially of the face, made from life, by drawing, painting, photography, engraving etc.: a likeness’. The idea of the portrait is not just a ‘representation’ or a ‘likeness’ but rather incorporates the much wider yet intangible concept of identity which can describe a wide variety of characteristics about the sitter such as social standing, personality, gender, age and character among other qualities.

The work on display in About Face reflects on the one hand a wide range of artistic approaches or fashions, techniques and media and on the other pockets of ‘peculiarities’ have been selected to expand on a particular ‘stereotype.