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Shaw Ruddock GallerySelected Works
Jeanne Dunning, Untitled with Tongue (detail), 1990, laminated cibachrome and frame. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of David and Gail Mixer. Courtesy of the artist. © Jeanne Dunning, 1990
Pierre Molinier, Self-Portrait, 1925, printed 1969, vintage gelatin silver print retouched in ink on paper. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of David and Gail Mixer. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Edward Weston, Jose Clemente Orozco, 1931, vintage gelatin silver print on paper. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of David and Gail Mixer. © 2024 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach (ringl + pit), Walter & Ellen Auerbach, London, ca. 1934, vintage silver print on paper. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of David and Gail Mixer. © ringl + pit, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
About
Strangers are not entirely unknown, rather they arrive unexpectedly and often disrupt expectations. An exchange of gazes—inquiring glances, defiant smirks, vulnerable stares—typically accompany such encounters. Since the advent of photography in the 1840s, artists have used the camera to portray themselves and others. Traditional aesthetic conventions guided many early photographers, though over time new approaches emerged from diverse historical contexts.
The artworks in this exhibition—self-portraits or portraits of other artists—reflect radically new propositions for what a portrait might be. They foreground the idea that identity is fluid, bodies are malleable, and strangeness is common. Whether confessional or slyly secretive, each of these photographs offers new revelations to the viewer. Working against systems meant to define, categorize, and normalize, these artists have reclaimed the portrait to express themselves and realize a vision of self otherwise foreclosed. Collectively, they ask us to consider: How do we communicate the undeniable reality of our bodies and the stories they tell about us? What does it look like to come into being, to materialize—just as a photograph develops—within as well as outside the strictures of social norms?
Hello, Stranger was co-curated by Isa Cruz ‘27 and Frank Goodyear, co-director, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, and supported by The Riley P. Brewster ’77 Fund. All works in this exhibition have been generously donated to the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art by David and Gail Mixer.