Contemporary art and historic portraiture: tell us about your current projects
Portrait of Mai (Omai), Sir Joshua Reynolds, c.1776, oil on canvas. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London and Getty
We are currently planning a two-day sector-facing event exploring the impact of contemporary art interventions which respond to historic portraiture collections. This event is inspired by the Journeys with Mai tour, which has placed pacific artist commissions in dialogue with the display of the portrait to disrupt traditional approaches to display, allowing space for critique and co-creation, explore themes of cross-cultural encounter. The event will take place at The Box, Plymouth, in May 2026.
We would like to hear from you if you are currently engaged in working with contemporary commissioning or display as a way to recontextualise and reinvigorate historic portrait collections. Please get in touch at [email protected] and we will be delighted to learn about your project.
For anyone wishing to join this event as an attendee, please save the dates of Thursday 15 and Friday 16 May (pending final confirmation). We will be in touch with further details shortly.
