NHS workers star in Tate Liverpool exhibition

NHS workers from Merseyside are the stars of a new exhibition of portraits showing their lives during the pandemic.

Artist Aliza Nisenbaum said she wanted to "pay tribute" to key workers in the project, commissioned by the Tate Liverpool gallery.

The US-based artist used photographs and Zoom calls to create two group portraits and 11 paintings of individuals.

The subjects include nurses, doctors, a hospital porter, a chaplain and Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) member Professor Calum Semple, painted alongside items which gave them support, hope or became more meaningful during the pandemic.

Nisenbaum said she hoped to show how the workers balanced their jobs with their home lives.

She said: "I realised how their jobs are really a vocation of service because this was something they were putting their life on the line for.

"I tried to think about how they balance life and how they deal with things like being parents.

"Some of their children would beg them not to go to work."

• The exhibition will run at Tate Liverpool from Tuesday until June next year.