ROBERT SZCZERBOWSKI

In the series of portraits titled ID (Identity) Robert Szczerbowski references, ubiquitous facial recognition technology. He expands on the motif of the pixelated image, which first appeared in his Self-Portrait from 2002. The artist broadly explores the topic of identity across various social media.
The paintings are acrylic on canvas in grayscale and composed of pixels, so that when viewed up close, they appear almost abstract and formless, while from a distance (or viewed on a mobile phone screen), they form a portrait.

"Today, pixelation is a natural and widespread procedure, you could say an omnipresent one. That gave rise to the concept of an exhibition called Identity, to which further pieces were gradually added, and the title was eventually shortened to a more expressive ID. Portraits make up a large part of the show. I’m not interested, however, in depicting the protagonists’ emotional states. These can hardly be in- ferred from their faces; the representations are deliberately indistinct. Rather, my intention was to confront people with their individual identity, its different faces, layers, splinters."

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