Artist Jess T. Dugan is joined in conversation with curator Christopher Jones as they explore the creation of the exhibition Jess T. Dugan: I want you to know my story and Dugan's artistic and creative practice.

A limited number of free tickets are available. To request a free ticket to this lecture, please email [email protected]

About Jess T. Dugan

Jess T. Dugan (b. 1986, Biloxi, MS) is an artist and writer whose work explores the complexities of personhood, relationships, desire, love, and family. While their practice is centered around photography, it also includes writing, video, sound, drawing, and installation. Their work is informed by their own life experiences, including their identity as a queer and nonbinary person, and reflects a deep belief in the importance of representation and the transformative power of storytelling.

Their work is regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of over 60 museums. Their monographs include Look at me like you love me (MACK, 2022), To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (Kehrer Verlag, 2018) and Every Breath We Drew (Daylight Books, 2015). They are the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, an ICP Infinity Award, and were selected by the Obama White House as an LGBT Artist Champion of Change.

They currently live and work in St. Louis, MO.

About Christopher Jones

Christopher Jones is the Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Curator of Photography and Media Arts at The Ringling. He has been a part of the curatorial team since 2012 and has curated numerous photography and contemporary art exhibitions including Territories: Photography, Space, and Power; Approaching the Border; Hank Willis Thomas: Branded/Unbranded; Coco Fusco: Twilight; Manuel Álvarez Bravo: Specters and Parables; Witness to War: and many others. His most recent major project, the exhibition Metadata: Rethinking Photography in the 21st Century and its eponymous catalog, explored artists approaching photography as a conceptually expanded practice. Prior to The Ringling, Jones served as Assistant Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. He received his MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the University of New Mexico. He has taught courses on the history of art and the history of photography at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL and at New College of Florida, Sarasota. 

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