Parallel Play, a group exhibit curated by Rhinebeck artist Angela Basile, brings together the work of seven New York–based artists whose work engages portraiture as a way of examining contemporary culture. Each artist pushes beyond simple likeness to find a story that exists within documentary and fantasy. Together, this work suggests that identity is not fixed but continuously shaped by the stories we tell about ourselves and others. At a moment when shared narratives feel unstable, Parallel Play explores the ways images mediate and reflect our experience of reality. These works invite viewers to consider portraiture as an active process of construction—one that reveals as much about the culture that produces the image as it does about the subject depicted.