On January 8, the Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery opened Boris Torres’ People I Know, an exhibit that transformed Princeton Day School’s gallery into a space filled with faces, stories, and presence. The show features a collection of live portraits painted by Torres, a New York City-based artist whose work includes collage, painting, watercolor, and life portraiture. In this exhibit, his paintings were created sitting face-to-face with his subjects rather than working from photographs. Through this, he captured not only physical features, but also the individuality and energy held by each person.
Torres’s live portraiture made the experience of being painted deeply personal and unique. Gwen Shockey, the Gallery Curator and Fine Arts Teacher, who previously posed as his subject, described the process as “so special.” Shockey encouraged students to visit the gallery in order to gain a sense of that feeling, and how much it differs from looking at a typical portrait that was painted from a photograph. “I think that when your eyeballs have to function as the camera and when you have to sit in someone else’s presence, you really can feel their energy and capture them,” she commented.
When Torres’s portraits were brought to the gallery, Shockey made sure to arrange the paintings in order to demonstrate the variety of faces, ages, races, and backstories in his art. Sophomore Raina Marshall-Hooten noticed this deliberateness, stating that, “It made me think about the stories behind each person. No painting was the same, everything was different…All of them had something new.”
The intentional curation was meaningful to Shockey, who shared this: “My first reaction to the work in the gallery was feeling inspired, feeling community. I love seeing so many different types of faces and ages in his work.” By bringing all types of people together in one physical location, Torres invites viewers to consider what it truly means to see somebody. As Marshall-Hooten explained, “It helps students see that there’s more to a person when you’re drawing. There’s so much more than what the person looks like.”
Ultimately, People I Know leaves an important impression on PDS because it reflects the school’s very own diversity; it reminds all viewers that every individual carries depth, with their own lives and stories. The exhibit asks students to see carefully, think deeply, and recognize the humanity within every stranger who walks the halls of PDS.
