Janet McKenzie considers the exhibition Portraiture In Focus: Irene Barberis, Anita Taylor and Helen Sturgess at Langford 120, North Melbourne, Australia (through April 21, 2013) in the context of post-war British portraiture and recent Australian art.

McKenzie writes: "With a revival of figurative art in the 1980s came a renewed interest in drawing, an art form that exists irrespective of cultural identity. The artists in Portraiture in Focus (2013): Irene Barberis, Anita Taylor and Helen Sturgess have achieved a significant profile in their careers, and have chosen drawing as one of their primary activitities, for here, the conceptual and the subjective, arguably the most vital components of contemporary art practice – connect in drawing more forcibly and more appropriately than in any other form of art."