Mari Katayama, you’re mine #001, 2014
LOVE: Still Not the Lesser
Aug 16 – Dec 22, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Photography / MoCP
Chicago, USA

“Has everyone been in love? Not on the basis of the evidence. If they have, they’ve forgotten it.
If everyone had been in love, they’d treat their children differently. They’d treat each other differently.”
James Baldwin, from “Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris,” 1970

LOVE: Still Not the Lesser brings together twelve international artists, uniting across communities to share the ways they encounter and understand love. These artists explore dynamics within romantic partnership, sensual eroticism, family structures, social utopia, and life and death. They observe and declare circumstances of love that serve various intentions.

The projects on view in LOVE range from an expressive courtship dance enacted by two people learning how to meaningfully connect despite barriers of distance, to an embodied portrayal of feeling one’s own sensuality and pleasure. From an adult son’s photo collaboration with his nonagenarian father during his artist mother’s last weeks of life, to the love and pride held within queer parenting.

Themes of visibility and adoration recur as concepts embraced by many of the LOVE photographers, as they use portraiture and self-portraiture to affirm many different types of bodies as divinely worthy of enjoying gentle care and affection. The exhibition presents love as a universal value of respect and care for all humans.

LOVE: Still Not the Lesser features artists Alia Ali, Alicia Bruce, Jorian Charlton, Jess T. Dugan, Mari Katayama, Kierah KIKI King, Mous Lamrabat, Tom Merilion, Salma Abedin Prithi, Modou Dieng Yacine, Yuge Zhou, and the debut of Jorge Ariel Escobar.

Love is a right of existence.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS
  • Fumi Nagasaka: Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama
    Publication
    Gost
    International

    During the 2016 US Presidential elections Japanese photographer, Fumi Nagasaka, became intrigued by the rural and southern USA. She had lived in New York City for a decade but despite travelling the world, had yet to visit the rest of the US. All this changed when her friend, Tanya Rouse, invited her to her hometown of Dora, Alabama. Nagasaka continued to visit Dora over several years, gradually building a photographic archive of her visits. (more…)

  • Anna Weyant: The Guitar Man
    Oct 18 – Dec 22, 2023
    Gagosian
    Paris, France

    Gagosian is pleased to announce The Guitar Man, an exhibition by Anna Weyant opening on October 18, 2023, at 9 rue de Castiglione, Paris. This is the New York–based artist’s European solo debut and follows her first presentation with the gallery, Baby, It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over, at Gagosian, New York, in 2022. Named for a song by Los Angeles soft rock band Bread, The Guitar Man features new figure and still-life paintings (more…)

  • The Unspoken Things
    Photo Series
    Wlasta Laura

    The Moravian folk costume (kroj) is a traditional clothing ensemble that originates from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. This costume reflects the cultural heritage and history of the Moravian people. The Moravian folk costume typically consists of various garments and accessories that vary depending on the specific region within Moravia. (more…)