Closing: Portraits of a Sicilian Family by Thomas MacPherson

Exhibition Closing: Friday, June 13, 2014

On view from March 20, 2014–June 13, 2014

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm

Portraits of a Sicilian Family is an exhibition of egg-tempera portraits focused on the exploration of painter Thomas MacPherson’s Sicilian-American identity. The paintings are composite images derived from family photographs and the artist’s knowledge of Italian Renaissance art. Combining depictions of personal history with iconographic references to art history, these portraits comment on the individuality and life stories of the sitters. The series is a celebration of the people who persevered through hardship and prejudice, paving the way for the next generation to succeed in a new country. The choice of medium deliberately evokes Italian culture to emphasize the origin of the Barones, MacPherson’s mother’s family. As a group, the series explores, through the often ironic juxtapositions of past and present, issues of cultural and ethnic identity, discrimination, social injustice, power, and conflict that mark our time.