Diverse Identities – Rab Wilson

The portraits explore identity through a series of paintings of friends, relatives and people known to the artist.

Included in the series is the Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth cycling champion Katie Archibald and a Paralympic swimming gold medalist, along with a diverse group of people from different ethnic origins and gender. Many of the portraits are scaled-up, some massively, allowing the viewer to investigate the face – its tones, colours, abstract shapes, lines, folds and emotion.

From the artist: I see the face as a landscape of a person’s life and I set out to explore and convey this in my work. Many of my paintings are large as I like to get up close to the face and find out what it is telling me – the emotions the face expresses and the strengths and vulnerabilities of the person behind it.

My work is intuitive and physical, with textured layers that create a personal communication. I am fascinated with how the face reflects and exudes colour, varies in tone and texture and is a synthesis of colours, tones, lines, marks, layers, folds and abstract shapes. From a distance my paintings appear representational but close up the viewer can explore the application of texture and paint that build the painting.
In this group of portraits, “Diverse Identities” I am interested in what makes us individually different. Each of us have our own qualities that make us unique. These qualities may be race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability and more. I see diversity as inseparable from identity.

Each painting is intended to be a celebration of people in my community. They are a visual expression of my own life experience; a diverse group with commonalities, differences and a range of identities.