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Who Controls the Gaze? Identity, Representation, and Power in Portraiture Portraiture is often understood as a way of recording a person's appearance, but the act of creating and viewing a portrait also determines how a person is understood. This exhibition explores the changing relationship between the viewer and subject by examining who controls representation, how identity is constructed, and who is given the authority to occupy the position of the subject. The five artworks are arranged chronologically and conceptually to move the viewer from interpreting another person's identity toward recognizing the subject's increasing control over how they are represented. The exhibition begins with Leonardo da Vinci's Saint John the Baptist (c. 1508–1516). The centralized figure, dramatic chiaroscuro, ambiguous smile, and direct gaze create a subject who is recognizable but psychologically difficult to understand. The viewer is placed in the position of interpreting Saint John's identity while Leonardo controls what is revealed. This establishes the exhibition's starting point: the viewer looks at the subject, while the artist controls the representation. Frida Kahlo's The Two Fridas (1939) changes this relationship by making the artist herself the subject. Kahlo presents two versions of herself, using contrasting clothing, exposed hearts, and connected blood vessels to construct an identity that is multiple rather than singular. The viewer is no longer simply interpreting someone else's identity; the artist actively determines how her identity is presented. Kehinde Wiley's Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps (2005) expands the question of identity into one of historical power. Wiley appropriates the visual language of European equestrian portraiture and replaces Napoleon with a contemporary Black man. The work challenges the colonial gaze and the historical exclusion of Black subjects from monumental representations of authority. By changing who occupies

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