"LOOK AT ME LIKE YOU LOVE ME | GUARDAMI COME SE MI AMASSI. Fotografie di Jess T. Dugan" exhibition in Milan

The Gallerie d'Italia in Milan will host, in the Sala delle Colonne from 17 May to 19 October 2025, the photographic project conceived and organized by the Diversity Equity and Inclusion structure of Intesa Sanpaolo in collaboration with ISPROUD, the LGBTQ+ Community of Intesa Sanpaolo, "LOOK AT ME LIKE YOU LOVE ME | GUARDAMI COME SE MI AMASSI", by the American artist Jess T. Dugan (Biloxi, Mississippi 1986) edited by journalist Renata Ferri. The fresco composed by Jess T. Dugan with large images in pastel colours is an ode to love, a queer pastoral.

Look at me like you love me – Guardami come se mi amassi is an exhibition of thirty works, including self-portraits and portraits of both individuals and couples, depicting faces and bodies, witnesses of lives lived between sky, earth and water. It is the creation, this tormented earthly paradise in which the artist portrays love, and love speaks with the body and of bodies, exploring desire, relationships, and the difficulties of making choices.

Dugan practices the art of observation, turning the lens towards others and towards themself, sometimes capturing domestic intimacy, and sometimes observing nature, which embraces and encompasses everything.

The use of the large format preserves the depth and detail of the work, in a balance between portrait and landscape.

The exhibition is designed to encourage an encounter between subject and viewer in an empathetic dialogue, where the photograph becomes a sentimental manifesto for a reflection on identity.

Two videos complete the exhibition installation: Letter to My Father, dated 2017, and Letter to My Daughter, dated 2023. In these autobiographical works, the artist's own voice takes us on a journey through their intimate experiences, in which personal memory is elevated to an investigation of the complexity of feelings and relationships, along with the transformations and scars etched into our souls and our bodies.

Look at me like you love me – Guardami come se mi amassi is an ongoing work that has engaged the artist in the desire to explore identity, gender, sexuality, love and intimate connection for more than ten years. It is an honest and profound vision that contemplates vulnerability and grace, the strength and difficulty that we experience in being ourselves—living human beings, connected to our desires, in relationship with others—in a contemporary world still permeated by stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

Jess T. Dugan's work expresses the beauty of human diversity, shining through just below the surface of the images, while the echo of a powerful visual song of freedom resonates within it.

The exhibition is in continuity with the activities of "Art and Inclusion".

Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) 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.

* The pronoun they in the English translation respects Jess T. Dugan's choice not to identify with male or female gender pronouns.