GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.- The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) announced today the opening of Jess T. Dugan: Look at me like you love me, a large-scale outdoor installation on the Museum’s exterior. The installation will open June 20 and remain on view through Sept. 28, 2024, for ArtPrize.

Located on the Monroe Center side of the Museum, the installation is comprised of photographic portraits of individuals and couples displayed as large window murals. Captured by Dugan over the course of seven years, the portraits in the installation explore desire, intimacy, companionship, and the ways our identities are shaped by these experiences.

Much of Dugan’s practice is informed by their life experiences and identity as a queer, non-binary person. Dugan is drawn to subjects who embody an inner strength alongside the ability to be open, present, and vulnerable—particularly when they embody an identity that is not supported by mainstream society. On this topic, Dugan says, “there are elements of gender and sexuality in Look at me like you love me, but it’s more about being a person, what it means to be alive, and what it means to connect with other people.”

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum is excited to present Look at me like you love me on our Monroe Center exterior, activating a highly visible and central spot in downtown,” commented GRAM Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Jennifer Wcisel. “Jess’ work provides us with something that we as humans so desperately need—to be fully and truly seen. We hope visitors to GRAM feel seen and celebrated through this work.”

In addition to the works on the Museum’s exterior, Look at me like you love me includes two video works by the artist, Letter to My Father (2017) and Letter to My Daughter (2023), which will be on view indoors in GRAM’s Monroe Center Creativity Space. The films are deeply personal reflections on life, love, familial relationships, and parenthood.

Guests to GRAM can also view Dugan’s photograph Shira and Sarah (2020), currently on view in the exhibition The Outwin: American Portraiture Today through September 8, 2024.