11 September - 12 October 2002
Sadie Coles HQ at the Royal Academy of Art
Elizabeth Peyton continues to select the subjects for her emotionally intense portraits from amongst both her friends and figures in the public eye. The intriguingly eclectic roll call of celebrity subjects in her new work ranges from the institutional figures of Prince Harry and the Queen to the rap star Eminem. The human qualities at the heart of these portraits enables us to re-evaluate our responses to these familiar faces . The beautiful rooms of the Royal Academy, with all their associations of traditional portraiture, from Sir Joshua Reynolds onwards, throw into relief Peyton’s relationship to portraiture and her distinctly twenty-first century approach to subject matter, celebrity, and love.