Artist Talk with Vikesh Kapoor

In Funeral (2023), Vikesh Kapoor stages a portrait of his mother and her absence. The photograph depicts a private ceremony held at his family's home in rural Pennsylvania. In an act of memorialization, he reconstructed the scene the morning after her funeral. The piece anchors See You at Home, a personal narrative about family, memory, and the myth and melancholy of the American Dream.

Now titled Ceremony, the work will frame a conversation between Kapoor and Charlotte Ickes, Curator of Time-Based Media and Special Projects, about ceremony, the objects we leave behind, and what a portrait asks of us when someone is gone.

Funeral is on view in . The National Portrait Gallery’s triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition celebrates excellence in the art of portraiture. Every three years, artists living and working in the United States are invited by the museum to submit one of their recent portraits to a panel of experts. The selected artworks reflect the compelling and diverse approaches contemporary artists are using to convey their personal and collective stories through portraiture. Vikesh Kapoor is one of 35 artists selected out of 3,300 submissions.

This program was made possible by the generous support of Raymond L. Ocampo Jr. and Sandra Oleksy Ocampo.

The Portrait Gallery strives to provide programs that are accessible to all visitors. If you have questions about the accessibility of this program, or if you would like to request real-time captioning (CART), sign language interpretation, or any other accommodations, please contact Vanessa Jones at [email protected]. Two weeks advance notice is appreciated for requesting accommodations.