Emergent Art Advisory and Twenty Summers present a survey exhibition of Jess T. Dugan

— I’m right here with you comes to Stanley on Commercial St —

Beginning 11 September, Twenty Summers will present I’m right here with you, an exhibition organized by Sophie Barfod and Gavin Kennedy. This exhibition brings together twenty-eight works across photography, drawing, video, and writing, to offer an expansive retrospective of Jess T. Dugan's multidisciplinary practice. The title I'm right here with you gestures toward a tender reassurance drawn from a phrase that Dugan whispers to their daughter. Dugan’s commitment to care begins with the act of paying attention: to see and to be seen is to be recognized, particularly for those whose identities have historically been marginalized.

This exhibition traces the natural as a throughline in Dugan's work, finding expression in observational drawings of flowers as well as intimate portraits of queer bodies situated within expansive landscapes. The category of "nature" has long been politically constructed, often mobilized to determine who belongs and who does not. Despite the many ways in which the natural has been weaponized against queer, trans, and nonbinary lives, to whom rural landscapes are often denied, Dugan's work repeatedly returns to it as a site of possibility. Like a flower moving through stages of blooming, wilting, and renewal, Dugan remains attentive to the slow and often imperceptible processes through which nature is continually changing. It is precisely this capacity for transformation that makes the natural such a poignant site through which to ask questions about love, presence, and belonging.

If contemporary understandings of ourselves are relational and continually evolving, the notion of an authentic identity hidden beneath appearances begins to lose its hold. The self is not a fixed essence. concealed by a mask but is rather in a continual and relational process of becoming. The question is no longer whether queerness is natural, but what becomes possible once the distinction itself begins to dissolve. I’m right here with you becomes a gentle invitation to embrace this ongoing transformation, softly whispering in our ear to attend to its evolution with a sustained presence.

I’m right here with you opens at Stanley, 494 Commercial St. in Provincetown, on Friday, September 11, 2026. It runs through Sunday, November 30, 2026.

Make sure to sign up for our newsletter and check out 20summers.org/stanley for more upcoming information on hours and special events!

About Jess T. Dugan

Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) is an artist and writer whose work explores the complexities of personhood, relationships, desire, love, and family through photography, film, writing, and drawing. 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 70 museums. Their books include Love Pictures, a survey book made in collaboration with Charlotte Cotton (Radius Books, 2026), 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 live and work in St. Louis, MO.

To Look with Love, Photo Vogue, 2025

A New Show at The Ringling Features Jess T. Dugan’s Striking, Intimate Photo Portraits, Sarasota Magazine, 2024

What, exactly, is masculinity?, A Feeld Magazine, 2024

About Emergent Art Advisory (EAA)

EAA is a contemporary art advisory founded on a belief in artists and in art as a vital form of knowledge.

Art gives us a way to inhabit complexity. It holds contradictions that do not have to be immediately resolved; they can become engines for imagination and give us new ways of being in relation to one another. Our belief in art therefore begins with a belief in artists: in their capacity to investigate the world and produce forms of understanding that could not exist otherwise.

We pair curatorial discernment with commercial rigor because meaningful art requires structures through which artists can be supported, work can be preserved and encountered, and ideas can continue to circulate. Across collections, exhibitions, and cultural partnerships, we connect artists with patrons, institutions, brands, and new audiences while protecting the integrity of the work. Founded by Gavin Kennedy, a trustee of the Fine Arts Work Center and co-chair of the ICA Boston Advisory Board, EAA pairs curatorial depth with twenty-five years of global brand-building experience.