Self-proclaimed “famous new media artist” Jeremy Bailey is giving back to his benefactors by presenting a series of augmented reality portraits of his sponsors. The Kickstarter-funded Important Portraits, showing between Thursday, April 4 and Saturday, May 4  at Toronto’s Pari Nadimi Gallery, draws on a rich history of portraiture as a mode for immortalising figures of significance, as well as providing an income for its artists.

Bailey’s proposal video features the upbeat artist announcing “art is always about who pays for it” and citing all the past “great men who have destroyed entire civilisations, and women too,” as the inspiration behind his modern take on an old tradition. Due to feature on Rhizome’s Seven on Seven conference with a range of other significant artists and developers, April 20, Bailey is an anomalous figure in new media art, presenting as a positive, transparent and satirical persona in his work. You can see more of his work, including his ‘wearing what you watch’ video on his website here. **