Not Another Face in the Crowd: Self Portrait Drawings
September 29–October 21, 2026
Exhibition Statement
“These images are memories of long-forgotten dreams. Is this their heartbeat or ours?” — Werner Herzog, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, 2010
In Introduction to Drawing, students began by watching Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams and thinking about cave paintings as an early form of mark-making and symbolic communication. Using The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images an 808-page reference book, students began their drawings by creating a first layer of marks and shapes based on cross-cultural symbols, personal meaning, and imagery found in dreams and Surrealism. The project then shifted to studying David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge documentary, which explores how Renaissance artists used projection and optical devices to help construct their images.
Inspired by Hockney’s research, students used their own projections as a starting point in completing the Self-Portraits you see here in this exhibition. The overall process connected two very different approaches to image-making—from the symbolic marks of the cave to the sophisticated use of projection in Renaissance art—while giving students a chance to explore how technology, dreams, memory, and personal imagery can shape contemporary drawing. In the end, each drawing became more than simply another face in the crowd: it became a personal record of how each student sees, imagines, and represents themselves.
Ron Abram, Professor
Participating artists
Caleb Alanis
Yuvelk Lopez Garcia
April Baxter
Misha Maryan
Sara Brightman
Gus Nelson
Lucy Dale
Linh Pham
Kennedy Dawson
Saiba Rahman
Anna Ellingson
Lily Reaser
Huangyi Ke
Vioet Kubiak
Evelyn Snyders
Details
Exhibition information.
- Date
- September 29–October 21, 2026
- Opening
- Tuesday, September 29, 2026
- Format
- Student group exhibition
- Media
- Self-portrait drawings