Duncan Pepe Long is an Auckland based artist who creates portraits and figure studies in paint and various print media including woodcut, lithograph and monotype. For the Point Blank exhibition, Long presents an editioned etching; a self-portrait. Self-portraiture has been a popular practice among artists since the Renaissance, and it could be argued that in this age of the selfie, it has become a daily pastime for many. But what a smartphone captures cannot compare with the painstaking and brutal penetration of an artist’s self-portrait which stands apart in its aversion to vanity. The direction of the eyes also makes this image unusual, perhaps a nod to the (now debunked) theory that when a person looks up to their right, they are likely lying.

Having spent several years as the Associate Printmaker at Auckland Print Studio, Duncan Pepe Long now teaches at Unitec. He was a finalist in the Adam Portraiture award in 2016 and 2018.