PAUL CAMPBELL’S “FACEBOOK PROFILES II” RUNS TO JULY 12. 10AM-5PM.
DRABINSKY GALLERY, 122 SCOLLARD. 416-324-5766. WWW.DRABINSKYGALLERY.COM.
It’s no news that social networking sites have redefined the ways in which we see ourselves, and this includes the self-portrait. Everyone on these sites has made one: their own profile image, probably done with a digital camera, which has the advantage of allowing its user endless poses until they find an acceptable version of their face. We can all tell the pains to which people have gone in order to render these (to me, every blurred, off-centre, or sunglasses-dominated shot is obnoxiously coy; I admire the unpretentious, head-on, dorky smile shot), but we accept it. Facebook profile pictures are cosmetic surgery for the scars left by yearbook photos.
Paul Campbell’s fantastic new exhibit, “Facebook Profiles II,” addresses this aspect of the site from the perspective of a 50-something, mostly-abstract painter whose children are steeped in the phenomenon (his son, Sam, is the subject of one of the paintings). In making these new figurative works, Campbell has projected low-res digital portraits — taken from actual profiles — onto canvas, and this means their individual formal components are emphasized and often brightened, bringing to mind paint-by-numbers. Alex Katz also seems a reference point, not just his flattened, graphic style, but his philosophy on portraiture: i.e., that it grants humanity to bourgeois people, despite showing them at their vainest. Indeed, the best facet of Campbell’s well-painted show might be its concept. He wrests control from the portraits’ creators, moderating the silliness of these self-presentations with the kind, merciful grace of the artist.