The Story Behind the Work: Leor Grady's self portrait

Leor Grady's self-portrait is the most subversive work in the show, depicting the Israeli-born, New York-based artist not by physical appearance, but by a simple, chronological listing of the significant people he has encountered in life. Titled "In Order of Appearance," the roughly 3 1/2 -minute video, which scrolls like the closing credits in a movie against a plain black screen, runs through a litany of 127 people who have had a formative influence in his life. It begins with Grady's mother and father, and includes schoolmates, rocker Freddie Mercury, an "anonymous Australian girl in a Manchester hotel" and the critic who gave the artist his first review (Levia Stern).

It's a clever role reversal to define oneself through others. But the nicest touch of all comes at the end, under the "special thanks to" section, where Grady offers up his final gratitude "to you." Even though we can't see anybody on the screen, Grady gets that it is not the picture, but the act of looking, that makes a portrait.

-- Michael O'Sullivan