People on the Periphery is a major retrospective of David Lenz’s work, celebrating the painter’s passionate and intimate depictions of inner-city children, people with intellectual disabilities, and small-time rural farmers. Lenz is one of America’s preeminent portrait painters; in 2006 he won the first Outwin Boochever Portrait Award, sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, with a portrait of his son Sam. The award was the Gallery’s first non-presidential commission. His remarkable photo-realist technique underscores his subjects’ authenticity as they are representatives of groups that are often ignored or marginalized. The show will span the years 1990 to 2016 including many works that have rarely been seen in public as well as several that are making their debut at MOWA