The Convention of Physiognomy
A group exhibition
THE CONVENTION OF PHYSIOGNOMY
01 MAY ー08 JUNE 2026 COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION HANGAR GALLERY
No Face, No Case
The ancients believed that character could be read in the forms of the face, as if it were a landscape turned up by the agitations of the brain. And in a way, they weren’t wrong; a distinctive physiognomy can have a strong influence on the way you are treated, and it takes a strong or insensitive character to not go along with this to some extent. If you look like everyone’s idea of a criminal, you’re more likely to end up in jail, if you look like the ideal lover you’re more likely to have the experience of being loved, for better or worse, and these and other formative experiences will tend to be reflected in your character. If you’re cute as a button, people might look after your interests without taking your ideas too seriously. If you frighten small children, you have less reason to like them. And all these inner struggles, the pulling of muscles here and there to form temporary expressions, can, across the years, do the work the ancients imagined, and form you in a way that represents your character, or the blankness of your empty mind. If we did know how to read faces, this might be useful, but no-one has really worked out the scheme yet. But artists will try to represent it. They are in the business of speculation, and unlike the ancient doctors, and quite unlike the mirror, they know it. They know there’s something interesting there, in the personal, and in the abstract, but they don’t put a label on it. Give them a landscape, show them a soul, and they’ll show you their skill, their imagination, but rarely their conclusions. That, they leave up to you.
—
George D.
