Ann Arbor artist's new show examines skin color and beauty with humor and exuberance

This story is part of a series about arts and culture in Washtenaw County. It is made possible by the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, Destination Ann Arbor, Larry and Lucie Nisson, and the University Musical Society.

"In art, there's a lot of ... being told that something has meaning or something is beautiful," says Rogério Pinto, an artist and University of Michigan (U-M) professor of social work. "And then you get there and you begin to see for yourself what it is you think about it."
 
Pinto is talking specifically about Michelangelo’s "David," which he calls "one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life." But the larger question is also one raised by Pinto’s latest exhibition, "Colorism," now on view at the Duderstadt Center Gallery, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd. in Ann Arbor, through March 12.

Pinto says he approaches each new project with a "simple question": "What am I seeing in my environment that is oppressive to me, and to people around me, and beyond?" His latest work is made up of video installations, photographs, sculptures, and interviews with collaborators — with an emphasis on audience interaction. In fact, Pinto says, "the exhibit helps people to delve deeper into those questions because it provides an environment of interaction."

Emerson GranilloAn installation in Rogério Pinto's show, "Colorism."
For example, Pinto says he feels "viscerally" that "we would not be looking at 'David' the same way" if the sculpture were made from, say, a yellow or brown marble, rather than a stark white. So in "Colorism," he presents his own twofold iteration of the iconic statue. In the first, Pinto has situated his own nude body on a pedestal, his limbs and head daubed in a marble-like white but his torso left noticeably bare and brown, with a pair of breasts slung from his chest.
 
The second iteration is a cardboard cutout of the first — the kind of thing you might find at a state fair or tourist attraction — with an open space where the face should be, and a placard encouraging visitors to try out the role.
 
Elsewhere in the exhibit, this sense of humor, exuberance, and painstakingly delineated ideas is just as evident. As part of one installation, Pinto had a sample of his skin biopsied, an experience he recorded on video. Pinto then printed a sample of the histological images onto a silk scarf, which he encourages visitors to actually wrap around themselves.
 
"Imagine that that's your skin — because my skin is very similar to [that of] anybody who may come to that exhibit," he says.

Emerson GranilloAn installation in Rogério Pinto's show, "Colorism."
Beside the scarf is one of the exhibit’s most ambitious pieces, the nearly life-size sculpture "Dermis," which plays both on the form of the mannequin and the 18^th-century haute couture silhouette.
 
"I wanted it to look very organic," Pinto says — a modest statement that belies the complexity of the sculpture. "Dermis'" skirt unfurls in petal-like layers meant to suggest "openings," Pinto says.
 
"I mean, we lose skin every day, right?" he adds.
 
For fabrics, Pinto went with velvet and silk, partly for the draping effect and partly because — in the case of the silk in particular — the translucency drew "a direct connection between what you see in the microscope and how you see this silk being lit up by light," he says.
 
Some of the pieces seem more ruminative or philosophical while others are more explicitly political. In the photo series "Poster Boy," Pinto appears dressed in a white shirt, pink tie, navy blazer, and blonde wig — not unlike certain all-too-familiar politicians. A blank space in the series has been filled in with a mirror.

Doug CoombeRogério Pinto.
Pinto notes "how incredibly paradoxical" it is to find a beauty industry with competing messages for customers depending on their race. On one hand, products intended to lighten skin tone are available, "but on the other hand, you have a whole industry for white people telling them to go to the tanning booth and get dark," Pinto says.
 
"It's a very strange thing," he adds. "I wanted to have people think a little bit about that … and look at themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Well, what am I with all this?’"

Natalia Holtzman is a freelance writer based in Ann Arbor. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and others.

"Colorism" exhibition photos by Emerson Granillo. Rogerio Pinto portrait by Doug Coombe.