Inward
Jess T. Dugan: Inward
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art
Colorado State University
Online at https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/jess-dugan-c-a-r-s-online-virtual-exhibition/
September 2020-September 2021
Admission: Free
Review by Maggie Sava
As Jess T. Dugan (they/them/theirs) describes in their statement for the exhibition Inward—which they curated as part of the Critic and Artist Residency Series (C.A.R.S.) ONLINE program hosted by CSU’s Gregory Allicar Museum of Art [1]—introspective time spent unpacking the differences between intimacy and isolation has defined this last year. [2] Dugan performs this personal process in a public manner by curating themselves as both an artist and a subject alongside other works in the Allicar Museum’s collection. [3] The results expose how this past year’s mediated relationality has underscored the complexities of seeing and being seen.
Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani, Multi-Tonations of Anomalies, from the series Chromatherapy, 1979–2004, chromogenic print, 10 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.
Dugan’s show challenges how viewers connect emotional experiences to art, even in how the exhibition’s virtual format prevents physical engagement. The viewer can only theorize about the surface quality, texture, and true scale of the artworks. Dugan furthers this tension between interiority and sensory experience with what they call “a through line of hands.” [4] For example, Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani’s Multi-Tonations of Anomalies (1979–2004) isolates the hands of two different people and defamiliarizes them by casting them in a disorienting, neon orange glow. Although splayed near one another, the hands do not touch—a bitter irony in light of a year lacking in tactile contact.
Jess T. Dugan, Self-portrait (bed), 2011, photograph, 30 x 23.5 inches. Image courtesy of the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.
Dugan’s self-portraits externalize the invisible work of self-reflection. As an accomplished photographer with works in the collections of more than 35 museums [5], Dugan demonstrates a masterful understanding of light, line, color, and composition. In Self-portrait (bed) (2011), they transform the setting of the bed into an encompassing emotional field that obscures nearly all of their body in a swell of maroon sheets. Only a small swatch of their back and their fingers peeking over their shoulder are visible. Although it was made a decade ago, this work recalls the now all-too-common feeling of how interior spaces of rest have become portals into uncertainty during the pandemic.
Jess T. Dugan, Vanessa (mirror), 2013, photograph, 30 x 23.6 inches. Image courtesy of the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.
Dugan balances scenes of their isolation with photographs of couples in tender embraces and individual portraits of others. Several of Dugan’s photos explore the vastness of the subject’s interior self by using mirrors, sometimes large and often vivid color fields that transform the settings into otherworldly spaces, or, in the case of Vanessa (mirror) (2013), both. Nonetheless, as Vanessa’s position turning away from the camera would suggest, even the most well-intentioned attempts to capture another person fall short of their entirety.
Awareness of the limits of representation does not detract from Dugan’s work. Rather, it plays into how they celebrate their subjects and the central exploration of identity present throughout their body of work, specifically through the lens of gender and sexuality. [6] Dugan identifies as a queer, non-binary artist and many of their photographs feature members of the LGBTQ+ community—individuals who are regularly marginalized in or excluded from visual culture. Here, Dugan centers them, expressing their agency through rich and often joyful portraiture.
Jess T. Dugan, Cai, 2019, photograph, 30 x 22.5 inches. Image courtesy of the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.
In Cai (2019), Cai’s open pose, which otherwise would imply vulnerability through exposure, balances the calm confidence of their direct gaze. Faint scars tracing Cai’s chest communicate a personal and private history of the body, yet without the need for further explanation or justification. Dugan reinforces this by not including an interpretive text but allowing each photo to speak for itself and create a conversation with the works from the museum’s collection. In a time when everyone’s focus has been turning inward, Dugan’s art asserts that community building through intentional acts of visibility is more important than ever.
As both an artist and curator in this show, Dugan foregrounds the relationship between the need to self-explore and to have two hands meet, to witness a hug, or even to silently take in another’s presence. Touching upon these shared longings and absences through familiar visual languages, Dugan recontextualizes the act of representation by incorporating awe and care in how they approach depictions of self and others. These depictions do not need to be mastered or resolved—we can appreciate them as perpetually open.
Maggie Sava is a writer based in Denver, Colorado. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and English, Creative Writing from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. Writing is her main artistic engagement, which she pursues through research, art writing, and poetry.
[1] The Gregory Allicar Museum of Art’s C.A.R.S. ONLINE artist-curated series combines the work of practitioners from the Critic & Artist Residency Series and the museum’s collection in virtual exhibitions. “JESS T. DUGAN: C.A.R.S. ONLINE Virtual Exhibition,” Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University, accessed April 29, 2021, https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/jess-dugan-c-a-r-s-online-virtual-exhibition/.
[2] Jess T. Dugan “Curatorial Statement, Inward,” Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University, accessed April 29, 2021, https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/jess-dugan-c-a-r-s-online-virtual-exhibition/.
[3] The artworks Dugan includes from the museum’s collection is primarily two-dimensional works apart from one sculpture. The works do, however, cover a range of mediums, including woodcuts, wood engravings, photographic prints, charcoal drawings, gouache on board, pastel on paper, oil on Masonite, and lithographs.
[4] Jess T. Dugan “Curatorial Statement, Inward” Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University, accessed April 29, 2021, https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/jess-dugan-c-a-r-s-online-virtual-exhibition/.
[5] Jess T. Dugan, “About,” Jess T. Dugan, accessed April 29, 2021, http://www.jessdugan.com/about.
[6] Jess T. Dugan, “Artist Statement,” Statements, Jess T. Dugan, accessed April 29, 2021, http://www.jessdugan.com/statements.
