With a powerful ability to discern and amplify the magical possibilities of ordinary life, Bo Bartlett exemplifies the potential for exploration in narrative figurative painting with his informed and technically skilled interpretation of contemporary portraiture. The Columbus, Georgia-based painter dissolves formal distinctions between portraiture and self-representation, exploring the unspoken implications of identity, as well as relationships within an image and the viewer-subject relationship. Bartlett’s subjects are rendered fully as individuals, and his articulation of realism transcends mere mimesis. Often approaching the fantastical, the artists's meticulous control of his medium tempers his imagination, inflecting each painting with an uncanny psychological resonance. In single and group portraits, Bartlett takes up the influence and concerns of American realists, like Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Eakins, to capture the elusive coexistence of physical reality, emotional experience, memory, and dreams.