Portraiture is a about capturing a likeness, a representation of a person. Artist Joshua Bienko spent a good portion of the summer of 2006 drawing over two hundred portraits of people he never even met. His subjects were members of an Athens chapter of the Delta Zeta Sorority. All one hundred fifty were hung in the Mercury Artworks Gallery in December of that year. A respectable public came to appreciate the new work by Mr. Bienko, a local graduate student of painting at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The exhibition also included some of his older pieces—a meticulously rendered drawing of a peacock and a more whimsical self-portrait of the artist riding a mule.

The focus of the show, the two hundred ladies of Delta Zeta, was arranged by the gallery into four sets (their respective classes) on three walls of the one hundred by fifty foot gallery. The overall effect produced a sea of images that filled the viewer’s field of vision. Pencil marks were made on more than two hundred identical sheets of paper, ten inches by twelve inches high, each primed with white gesso paint. The untreated paper formed a neutral frame for each of the black and white drawings.

At a far enough distance, the drawings seem identical, with dark dresses and hair in high contrast to the paper, with a medium tone in between for the smiling faces. The similarities between each piece stem largely from Mr. Bienko’s method of working from the official sorority photographs, in which each girl is dressed in nearly identical solid black gowns and shot from a three-quarter angle from the shoulder up. Despite their similarities, the artist’s draftsmanship produced noted distinctions. Richard J. Olsen, an artist who attended the opening reception for the show, was able to detect which of the girls were blondes, brunettes, and even redheads from the meticulous translation of value that Mr. Bienko lavished on his grayscale drawings.

The choice of subject matter along with his method produced pieces that are the textbook definition of portraiture. However, despite a classical style, the artist’s subtext is a post-modern one. The drawings purposely and slavishly reproduce the source photographs while stubbornly refusing to show any affectation or flourish of autographic style. A telling detail is the lack of specular light reflection in the subject’s eyes, ensuring a flat, lifeless quality of the images. Those unfamiliar with Mr. Bienko’s work are given a clue by the other pieces in the show that this omission of character or vitality in the portraits is not the result of a lack of skill but rather a prescribed self-restraint.

Mr. Bienko presents a mystery, with no clear arrows pointing to purpose or inspiration. The obvious entry point for discussion lies with the subject of the girls themselves. As anonymous faces in a substantial crowd, each girl is devoid of personal iconography; it is certainly not the individuals that the artist portrays. Perhaps it is this homogeneity that we are left facing. Arguably, these women have been made to look the same, unified by both their sisterhood and the artist’s twice removed mug shots. A critique of Greek culture within a university setting is not an absurd thought concerning the series. However, this proves to be a rather provincial reading of the work within the larger context of art history.

These enigmatic portraits are only the latest question marks in Mr. Bienko’s short but accomplished painting career in Athens. He has shown work at ATHICA (Athens Institute for Contemporary Art) as well as displaying the MYSPACE PROJECT in collaboration with fabric artist Euni Figi. Together they surveyed the public usage of the social networking program MYSPACE and transformed the indexed information into a drawing on the glass exterior of the I.C.E. (Ideas for Creative Exploration) Building.

What has emerged in Mr. Bienko’s work is a trademark distance from his subject.  His paintings are either iconic or direct quotes from other artists. His “FASHION FAUX PODS” series relied heavily upon the conceptual framework of commoditizing other artists’ work as well as blurring the line between fashion, industrial design, and traditional oil painting. Perhaps most paradoxical about him is his use of traditional methodologies to pursue conceptual dialogues.

Mr. Bienko, a former president of the Georgia Society of Contemporary Painters and chair of the Lyndon House Board, has also served on the Lamar Dodd Visiting Artist’s Committee. All of these distinctions inform an academic and clinical approach to art. His paintings are both compelling and limited by his extreme attentiveness. The cold execution of technique seems less about painting and more of about mental exercise. One has to wonder whether Mr. Bienko will mature into any exploration of his own tastes and idiosyncrasies. Whether or not he feels comfortable in his role as an artist, he demonstrates himself a studied master of his craft.