FIGURE/GROUND

Contemporary figurative painting is more relevant than ever, as artists portray people engaged with the salient issues of our time—including race, sexuality, violence, migration, and privacy. What does it mean to be human as our relationship to our bodies, to nature, and to society evolves?

Eight artists working in the figurative tradition explore the body from a wide range of angles and in an array of mediums—including printmaking, painting, animation, photography, collage, sculpture, and drawing. Their work engages with the history of figurative art and also sheds light on both current and timeless notions of humanity.