Portraits/ Volume 90

Portraiture is one of the oldest and most enduring artistic practices, yet it remains endlessly redefined. In this special edition of Collect Art Magazine, Volume 90, we turn our attention to Portraits—not as a fixed genre, but as a living, evolving language through which artists explore identity, presence, memory, and the human condition. Across cultures and centuries, portraits have served as records of power, intimacy, resistance, and self-reflection. Today, they continue to ask urgent questions: Who is seen? How are we represented? What does it mean to capture a human presence in paint?

This edition brings together an international selection of painters whose approaches to portraiture are as diverse as their cultural and personal backgrounds. Some work from life, others from memory, imagination, or photographic reference. Some pursue likeness with meticulous care, while others dismantle the face and body into expressive gestures, symbolic forms, or emotional traces. Together, these artists remind us that portraiture is not merely about appearance, but about encounter—between artist and subject, viewer and image, inner life and outer form.

In an age saturated with images, portraits painted by hand carry a particular weight. The slowness of the process, the accumulation of marks, and the physical presence of paint allow for a depth of attention that resists immediacy. Many of the works featured in this volume reveal the tension between observation and interpretation: a gaze held just long enough to become vulnerable, a gesture suspended between recognition and abstraction, a surface layered with time, doubt, and intention. These paintings do not offer simple answers; instead, they invite contemplation, empathy, and reflection.

Portraiture has always been deeply connected to questions of identity, and this edition reflects the expanding ways in which artists engage with that theme. Some painters turn inward, using self-portraiture as a means of examining psychological states, personal histories, or shifting senses of self. Others look outward, portraying friends, strangers, or imagined figures to explore collective experience, cultural heritage, or social narratives. Some portraits speak of intimacy and tenderness, and others that confront discomfort, fragmentation, or silence. Each work becomes a site where individual experience meets broader human concerns.

The biographies and artist statements included in this volume provide insight into the varied paths that lead artists to portraiture. From formally trained painters to self-taught practitioners, from those rooted in long-standing traditions to those forging new visual languages, the contributors demonstrate that there is no singular way to approach the human face or figure. What unites them is a commitment to painting as a tool for inquiry—one that allows complexity, contradiction, and emotion to coexist.

Our personalised interviews offer a deeper layer of engagement, giving artists space to articulate their processes, motivations, and challenges. These conversations reveal portraiture as an act of listening as much as seeing. Many artists speak of trust, vulnerability, and responsibility—toward their subjects and toward the viewer. Others describe portrait-making as a dialogue with paint itself, where accidents, revisions, and intuitive decisions shape the final image as much as conscious intent. Through these voices, portraiture emerges not as a static representation, but as a dynamic exchange.

As you move through this special edition, we invite you to slow down and spend time with each work. Notice how different artists handle the gaze, the body, the background, and the space between forms. Pay attention to what is revealed and what remains unresolved. Portraits have a unique capacity to mirror us back to ourselves, to stir recognition or unease, and to remind us of our shared humanity.

Volume 90 of Collect Art Magazine celebrates portraiture as a field of endless possibility—one that continues to evolve alongside the people it depicts. By bringing together international painters, thoughtful writing, and in-depth interviews, this edition aims not only to showcase artistic excellence but to open a space for connection, reflection, and dialogue. In these portraits, we encounter not only faces, but stories, questions, and the quiet, powerful act of being seen.