This week, we’re focusing on exhibitions that showcase two very different approaches to the classic themes of portraiture and artistic representations of the body. In their recent large-format photographic portraits, artist duo Clegg & Guttman reference traditional High Renaissance motifs of power and corporeal codes. In New York, Warsaw-based artist Piotr Janas tackles the mythological subject of the Minotaur in visceral, Abstract fashion in his group of nine new paintings.

In Clegg & Guttman: collaborative and commissioned portraits at Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman in Innsbruck, Clegg & Guttman (American, b.1957) pay homage to Old Masters such as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Italian, 1573-1610) and Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) through their use of chiaroscuro. The dramatic staging of their subjects in contrasting light and shadow evokes 16th and 17th-century images of dominant religious and political figures. Yet, Clegg & Guttman assert their artistic authority through their deliberate compositional arrangements and positioning of the sitter, thereby deconstructing traditional hegemonic relationships between the artist and subject.

Clegg & Guttman: collaborative and commissioned portraits will be on view from June 27 to September 14 at Maria-Theresien-Straße 34, Innsbruck, Austria.

Clegg & Guttman, The Artist and his Studio, 2009, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck, Austria

Piotr Janas: Minotaurs at Bortolami Gallery showcases Piotr Janas’s exploration of themes of bestiality, sexuality, and masculinity, which are traditionally associated with the mythical creature. Janas’s series of paintings, which he refers to as figures or self-portraits, recall violent motions conveyed by severe and slashing lines, which puncture vaguely figural forms. Straddling the realms of cognition and expression, and of nightmare and dream, Janas offers a powerful and highly individualized interpretation of this ancient personage.

Piotr Janas: Minotaurs will be on view from June 27 to August 30 at 520 W. 20th Street, New York, NY.

Piotr Janas, Yet to be titled, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY

Browse gallery openings by city to see where art can be found in your town!

Munich, Germany
Es ist schon alles gesagt, nur noch nicht von allen.at Galerie Jahn Baaderstrasse
June 27–July 27, 2013
Baaderstrasse 56b, 80469 Munich, Germany

New York, NY
Seventh Annual Summer Exhibition at New York Academy of Art
June 27–July 27, 2013
111 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013

Paris, France
L’IMAGE PENSÉE at Galerie Kamel Mennour
June 27–July 25, 2013
47, rue Saint-André des Arts, 75006 Paris, France
Mo Kwang ‘Questions & Answer’ at Galerie Paris-Beijing
June 27–July 31, 2013
54, rue du Vertbois, 75003 Paris, France