As a precipitate of the relation between the photographer and the subject, the portrait inscribes a balance of power, in which one of the two dominates the subject’s representation. In Jess Dugan’s color portraits of people in the LGBT community (she herself is in the process of changing from female to male), Dugan takes the lead. All of her subjects radiate an unremitting intensity—never relaxed, betraying a smile in only a few cases, and yet never painted and certainly never stoical, dispassionate or nonchalant. They communicate a burning defiance, casino a sense that “I will not be moved,” that is diversified by each one’s particular temperament and physical bearing—Dugan does not homogenize her subjects; she simply gives each of them a signature attitude, one that every person takes at some moments in life. Dugan’s most striking work is a double-portrait diptych in which two women interrupt each other’s personal space. Their gestures suggest both a slap and a caress, yet neither subject is erotic or aggressive, only deeply intent. Their interaction breaches the frame’s divide to unite the double portrait. (Michael Weinstein)
Through October 27 at Schneider Gallery, 230 West Superior
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.
