Britney Spears, Brad Pitt, Katy Perry Featured In Celebrity National Portrait Gallery Exhibit

Britney Spears just did it again.

Along with Brad Pitt, Katy Perry and a host of lesser-known celebrities, Britney Spears will be featured in a new National Portrait Gallery exhibit titled, “Eye Pop: The Celebrity Gaze.” The exhibit will feature paintings, photographs, and other works of art dedicated to celebrities.

The National Portrait Gallery describes this collection, which along with Britney Spears features depictions of surfer Kelly Slater and actress Renée Fleming, as a celebration of people who have gone above and beyond simply being famous.

“The National Portrait Gallery works to include portraits of people who transcend fame and recognize them for achievement in its collection. This exhibition questions the separate roles of subject, artist and viewer in creating and experiencing the celebrity gaze.”

Exhibit curator Brandon Fortune said the goal wasn’t just to feature celebrities like Britney Spears who have contributed to pop culture, but also to focus on “people who have made a significant contribution to our history and culture, and some of these people and many of the subjects included in ‘Eye Pop’ are also absolutely world-recognizable celebrities.”

Britney Spears may be one of the more recognizable figures, but the exhibit also features people who made contributions to science, jazz music, and technology.

Other celebrities include jazz singer Esperanza Spalding, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and molecular biologist Maxine Singer.

Britney Spears made a splash in 1999 after her debut album, …Baby One More Time, became the best-selling album by a teenage artist. Her performance last week at the Billboard Music Awards even gave her recently released single “Pretty Girls” a bump in iTunes sales. But her success is not necessarily the reason Spears is featured in this exhibit. Fortune says it is the work of art the artist has created that transcends both the subject and the viewer. Fortune said she hopes that after viewing Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and all the other celebrities in this exhibit, people will understand that every work of art is a work of fiction from its creator. But it isn’t complete without the help of the subject and the interpretation of the viewer.

Fortune hoped that, along with being able to view interesting images of Britney Spears and other celebrities, it might get people thinking more about their own photographs in the future.

“Maybe after seeing this exhibit, you’ll have new insight into your selfies.”

The depiction of Britney Spears, whose most recent album, Britney Jean, debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 in 2013, as well as all the other celebrities selected, can be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. beginning Friday.

[Image via Rolling Stone]