On and Off Stage: Performance and Persona

This selection of works from the Addison’s collection explores performance both as visual spectacle and as a way of investigating identity.

Acrobats tumble and dancers leap across the first two galleries, revealing how the extravaganza of the circus, the drama of the theater, and the energy of dance have inspired artists across media. These ephemeral performances—from the breathtaking feats of trapeze artists to gestural movements of dancers—prompted creative strategies to preserve their dynamism in painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking. The emergence of modern dance and other performance-based art forms fueled parallel developments in visual media, particularly photography, as artists grappled with capturing the interplay between performer and audience, spectacle and spectators.

In the second half of the exhibition, the focus shifts from public stages to private ones, examining the performance of the self. Through costume, roleplay, and shifting personas, the works reveal identity as fluid—an ongoing process of self-definition rather than a fixed state. In this section, artists embrace the freedom of performance to explore new identities and modes of expression, as well as challenge stereotypes and societal norms. Through their use of theatricality and artifice, these works underscore the constructed nature of all identities, inviting viewers to reflect on the roles we perform in everyday life.

On and Off Stage includes works by Ida Applebroog, Charles Atlas, Gifford Beal, George Bellows, Nick Cave, Harold Edgerton, Hal Fischer, Glenn Ligon, George Platt Lynes, Barbara Morgan, Laurel Nakadate, Hunter Reynolds, Cara Romero, Cindy Sherman, and Lorna Simpson, among many others.