Spanning from the early 19th century to the present day, this prodigious survey brings together over 50 artists from around the world and argues that the portrait is an enduringly democratic, humanistic genre. Moving beyond binary thinking, the exhibition emphasizes the diversity of subjects and complexities of character that artists have captured through various modes of portrait-making. Looking backward and forward, recontextualizes pioneering portraitists who escaped the narrow first draft of the past century, while also surveying a wide range of contemporary painters. Far from "just girls," this range of artists has pushed the genre to capture the actual conditions, social structures and day-to-day experiences that form human existence. Gertrude Abercrombie, Maria Anto, Ernie Barnes, Jerome Caja, Xinyi Cheng, Leonor Fini, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Juanita Guccione, Mela Muter, Simphiwe Ndzube, Alice Neel, Collin Sekajugo, Sylvia Sleigh, Aleksandra Waliszewska, Robin F. Williams.