Portals Series 2013

Portals is a series of portraits by Anthea Delmotte which form visual interviews with current leading South African Fine Artists as well as key figures in the South African Fine Art market.

Portals is an expression of Delmotte's deep fascination, appreciation and love of art; the body of work has been four years in the making. Delmotte’s goal is to culminate the series in a book as both a document of her own artwork and as a tribute to the role players that are shaping and forming the current South African art landscape, and of course like past South African Masters and mentors – will undoubtedly shape the future of what is to come.

The portraits work on various levels – they are an exploration of the external world and surface representation, as well as the interior emotional, psychological and creative world occupied and explored by both Delmotte and her subject. They are first and foremost a visual document of appearance – the portrait, the artist’s artworks, the physical world they are placed within and a study of surface and texture. Secondly, by situating the artists within their constructed art spaces – the artist’s studio, which has a long historical precedence as a metaphor for the internal world of the artist – Delmotte has engaged with an exploration of the inner pysche of her subjects, as well as their own exploration of their interior world which she has re-presented to the observer.

By faithfully studying and reproducing the artworks of the artist, Delmotte also engages with the artist’s individual forms of artistic expression, subject and style, while playing with notions of representation and illusion. In engaging with forms of artistic expression other than her own, this has become part of Delmotte’s own artistic journey and growth through stylistic exploration.

- C.W.H.