January 24 - June 17, 2023
(Closed March 18- April 10 for academic breaks and holidays.)
Utilizing text from government documents, declarations, and other institutional communications artist Bryan Ida creates life-sized portraits in which the linework is his actual handwritten transcription of the sentences and phrases from the selected documents.
The con.Text series relates these historical events and documents to the lives of the individuals depicted. Each person portrayed is connected to the text used to create their portrait either through direct impact or generational effects of policies.
Collectively, the portraits examine a broad range of subjects including racism, civil rights, and human rights.
Ida develops the ink portraits working from photographs. While many of the source photographs are contemporary images taken by the artist himself, the photographs referenced for Grandfather (2018), Father (2020), and Grandmother (2022) — depicting members of Ida’s own family — are based on photographs by Dorothea Lange taken as part of her assignment from the War Relocation Authority to document the relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII.
Image above: Bryan Ida, Protester, 2019, ink on panel. Image courtesy of the artist.