Irene Grau is fascinated by photographic portraits, which – unlike their subjects – are essentially immortal. She takes old photographs of anonymous people or groups, be they postcards, found portraits, or gravestone portraits, and creates suitable hand-made abstractions using charcoal, paint with minimalist brush strokes, or miniature painting on slides or enamel. Her work thus offers a commentary on the nature of photographic images, which, though practically unchanging with time, can take on various subjective forms and thus resonate in various different ways.
Pavel Vančát