Kinsey features first individual artist exhibit; works sold benefit Institute

More than 200 Bloomington residents and IU students crowded into the Kinsey Institute Gallery Friday for the opening reception of iGuy (helovesmehelovesmenot.com), a collection of erotic collages by local artist Robb Stone.\nStone is the first individual artist to have a show at the Kinsey Institute Gallery, which usually features exhibits composed of items from the institute’s permanent collection of 8,000 works of art and artifacts and more than 70,000 photos, said Catherine Johnson-Roehr, curator of Kinsey Institute.\n“Robb realized it was a hard show to put up in any gallery in town,” Johnson-Roehr said, referring to the explicit nature of the exhibit. “But he thought it was a good fit for the Kinsey Institute.”\nThe exhibit, which ends today, is about the male gaze, or the way men objectify both women and men, according to Stone’s artist statement.\nIn the statement, Stone said he understood how the male gaze was employed in online profiles. \n“We create sexual personae in the form of Web site profiles,” Stone wrote in the statement. “In this aim, we distill ourselves down to some very essential details, namely: body type, penis and favored sexual position. Within these online worlds, very little importance is given to individuals or to personal interest. What I see is a kind of looking that tries to not see too much.” \nThe collages consist of mainly images from Manhunt, a gay social networking Web site, and text. Stone did not ask permission to use the images, but invited all of the men in the photographs to the opening reception, he said.\n“The one thing that’s important is that I’m not going to out anyone,” said Stone. “I didn’t use anyone with distinctive tattoos, no faces. I don’t want to blow someone’s cover.”\nThe exhibit also includes pieces featuring photographs from Stone’s own online profile.\n“This is a world I participated in,” Stone said. “I made a show of my online experience.”\nGrafton Trout, a retired IU faculty member who now works for the IU Art Museum, praised Stone’s work.\n“Technically, his work is virtuoso, the way he puts different images together in a collage,” Trout said. “It requires a great deal of skill. It’s really stunning work.”\nStone is selling every piece from his exhibit, and he will donate 20 percent of the sales to the Kinsey Institute, which does not have funds for new acquisitions, according to a gallery pamphlet.\n“If you don’t want to buy this work – not everyone wants a penis on their wall – I urge you to give a little bit of money to the Kinsey or to buy the work and donate it to the Kinsey,” Stone said. “As a gay man, I feel a debt to this place. The legal and scientific arguments against homosexuality dissolved after the Kinsey Report.”\nStone’s exhibit ends today. The gallery is located on the second floor of Morrison Hall. Regular gallery hours are from 2 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.