"With the advent of Instagram and the immediacy of photo sharing, qualified by endless streams of social media posing and the ability to image and re-image ourselves publicly, one could argue that self-portraiture, as a form of high art, has lost a certain credibility that was bestowed upon it in the past. Yet, Stranger, an exhibition of mainly painted self-portraits at Flowers Gallery, Kingsland Road, presents a group of works that go a long way toward its reclamation.

This was by no means an exhibition without certain failures in expectation, however. The leading image in Flowers' marketing, a 2012 portrait by Tony Bevan, suggested this was to be a room filled with dark, contorted faces presenting the tortured soul of an artist's navigation toward self-expression - à  la Francis Bacon, for example. Yet, upon first look, the images were largely - and dare I say disappointingly - pleasant. The mimetic reflections of figures such as Noah Becker and Renny Tait did not seem to add anything to the display but nonetheless should be congratulated for their figurative accuracy.  

What appears to tie these self-portraits together is the lack of an immediate self-aggrandisation that one might expect when painting such a narcissistic image as a self-portrait. Jamie Routley's On Leaving St. Pauls far from glamorises the role of the artist, as he stares outwards from his paltry surroundings wearing a scruffy, woollen hat. Using such a revered medium as oil paint to depict such a sullen scene is quite an apt contrast in an art world that has suffered increasing cuts to public funding on the one hand, yet, boasts millionaire media sensations on the other.

Moving on from speculation, there are a couple of pieces that particularly deserve comment. Tai-Shan Schierenberg's offering catches the eye as soon as you enter the building and dominates the display not only in size, but in the particularly admirable technical skill employed in its execution. This close-up painting of the artist's face portrays honesty but not an intimacy, upon viewing. It does not offer us as the spectator any more clues as to the person behind the image of the artist but rather, he has reduced himself to an image, albeit a very visually accurate one.

By-passing the first room for it, however, was definitely an oversight, as John Keane's Fear No.1 oil on linen is the absolute epitome of the show. Appointed an official war artist during the Gulf War and renowned for his political portraits and trips to the Gaza Strip, this time he has turned the paintbrush on himself. What has been rendered is a highly emotive piece that appears part-criminal mug shot and part-intimate encounter with the face of a man who has witnessed the unimaginable, in relation to scenes of war and conflict.

Compared with the aforementioned, this portrait couldn't be more different. There is a depth to this man's eyes which is quite haunting and causes an uneasy feeling of guilt in witnessing such an intimate view of himself, after he has dedicated most of his career to exposing the truth behind our perceived images of others.

Another absolute highlight, as to be expected, were the Ken Currie portraits, but there was something unsettling about their placement in this exhibition, particularly the 2012 portrait that peers out through the darkness of its canvas. Shown here, his image becomes another face among a sea of faces; yet, if you were to stumble across it in a different context, it might stop you in your tracks.

Here, Currie achieves such dark suggestion by a menacing use of chiaroscuro. Rather than modelling a three-dimensional setting for us to behold as onlookers, intruding on a private scenario, he appears to be the one protruding into ours, as the majority of his body and face, and certainly all of what could have been a background, are shrouded by darkness.

As this account can only scratch the surface of what is on display at Flowers this season, I recommend that you pay a visit. This highly disparate grouping of paintings, under the umbrella of contemporary self-portraiture, seems at pains to offer at least something for everyone, but with respect to the pieces that really do epitomise the show, it is well worth the trip just to see them."

Bethan Troakes

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