2025 Nuala O'Flaherty Memorial Lecture: Dr Kim Sajet

Susi Reid, Chair QVMAG Arts Foundation, and Shane Fitzgerald, Director Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, cordially invite you and your guest to the 2025 Nuala O’Flaherty Memorial Lecture:

Make I/Eye/AI contact: Portraiture and the Li(f)e of Artificial Intelligence

Dr Kim Sajet
Director, National Portrait Gallery
Smithsonian Institution

Location:
The Tramsheds Function Centre
4 Invermay Road, Launceston, Tasmania

Proceedings:

• 5.30pm — 6pm: Guests arrive
• 6pm — 7pm: Guest lecture
• 7pm — 7.45pm: Refreshments and an opportunity to meet Dr Sajet

RSVP by 9 January 2025

Seats are limited.

Pablo Picasso famously said, “Art is a lie that makes us realise truth… at least the truth that is given us to understand.”

This idea has always held true for portraiture, whether in the form of commissioned paintings, public monuments, or even a passport photo—each serving as a claim to evidence, a fixed representation of a person’s unique existence.

For centuries, portraits have been the bedrock of our understanding of identity, grounding us in a world of likenesses that seem to affirm our individual truths.

Yet, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—where images can be generated without any human subject or artist involved—our entire conception of history, visual culture, and identity is poised for a radical transformation.

The once-clear boundary between a “real” person and their portrait is rapidly dissolving, and the concept of likeness itself is being upended. In this new era, any pretense that a portrait must resemble someone “real” is quite literally—and figuratively—going out the window.

In this thought-provoking talk, Dr. Kim Sajet, Director of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, will take us on a journey through the long and often problematic history of portraiture, beginning with 18th-century Europe and continuing to the present day.

She will examine how portraiture has never been just a mirror to reality, but rather a complex blend of truth, fiction, and interpretation, and then shift focus to the impact of AI on this centuries-old tradition.

Can AI-generated images truly capture the essence of a person? What happens to the idea of personal identity when an image can be fabricated without any human connection?

Is a portrait still a valid representation of someone if it is created by a machine that has never seen, met, or interacted with its subject? As AI-generated portraits blur the lines between what is “real” and what is merely “real-like,” how do we grapple with the unsettling possibilities these new technologies present?

Kim Sajet (pronounced Say-et) is the first woman to serve as director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. In this role, she is redefining how personal experience and creativity can drive learning and civic engagement.

While the museum celebrates remarkable Americans who have shaped U.S. history and culture, it also explores how identity is a social construct, influenced by emotions such as ambition, admiration, love, prejudice, and fear.

By blending traditional art forms—like painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking—with contemporary media, including poetry, video, installation art, and performance, Sajet aims to make history more personal and deepen our understanding of how individuals impact the world.

Before joining the National Portrait Gallery, Sajet held several key leadership roles: president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vice president and deputy director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and director of corporate relations at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

She also served as curator and director at two Australian art museums between 1989 and 1995, before moving to the U.S. with her family in 1997.

Sajet was born in Nigeria, raised in Australia, and is a citizen of the Netherlands, bringing a global perspective to her work. She holds a doctorate in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, a master’s in art history from Bryn Mawr College, an MBA from Melbourne University, a bachelor’s degree in art history from Melbourne University, and a graduate diploma in Museum Studies from Deakin University.

She has also completed arts leadership programs at Harvard Business School, the Getty Institute, and National Arts Strategies.

In addition to her arts management expertise, Sajet has written scholarly publications, curated exhibitions, and spoken at academic symposia worldwide.

Since 2019, she has hosted the PORTRAITS podcast, where she interviews artists, scholars, and thought leaders about the cultural significance of portraiture.

Her current research interests include early photography, nineteenth-century social reformers, semiotics, identity politics, and the role of celebrity culture in U.S. history. Sajet is also under contract with Princeton University Press to write a book on social activist Emily Howland and the history of photography, set for publication in 2025.

Host or Publisher QVMAG