Over the last three decades, Gillian Wearing has focussed her attention on the gaps between our public and private selves. Through her iconic series, Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say, Wearing created space for her subjects’ inner lives to be expressed. In Spiritual Family, she investigated the uncanny and poignant relationships we have to celebrities, ancestors, and artistic influences. Wearing’s interest in this communion between the self and the other — whether with an unnamed subway companion, a long dead grandparent, or a rabidly admired film star — is conveyed throughout her public commissions. The artist approaches her potentially monumental depictions of public figures with an eye to creating connection rather than creating a symbol.