A sense of distance pervades the images of the three young photographers here who are either current students at the School of the Art Institute or recent graduates. Casey McGonagle adds a creepy note in his black-and-white pigment print, “Deadman’s Park,” in which we see the subject sitting stiffly on a bench next to a trash can in the shadows of night, dressed in black and completely hooded in monstrous headgear that sports a hideous long snout. Robin Juan takes the opposite tack in her color portrait of a young woman, in which we see the subject fade into darkness with only the faintest trace of her face—Caravaggio with only the dimmest illumination, which reveals the woman’s hauntingly beautiful features only on close inspection. Sam Sieger’s highly pixilated digital print, “Splash,” renders the water play in such an attenuated fashion that it threatens to become an abstraction of motion. This slice of the up-and-coming generation shows a decided turn towards alienation, which is only appropriate for our times. As Sieger puts it, “I am skeptical, but I don’t want to be cynical.” (Michael Weinstein)
Through January 9 at Pentagon Gallery, 961 W. 19th Street
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
