Kinsey Institute exhibits end Friday

Time is running out to see two special exhibits at the Kinsey Institute.

“Face Value” and “Casual Encounters” will leave the Kinsey gallery Aug. 30.

“Both of these exhibits really gave us the chance to explore themes we don’t usually deal with,” said Garry Milius, associate curator of the gallery.

“Face Value” delves into the ways in which artists depict themselves and others through portraiture, hence the name.

A collection of paintings, photographs, drawings and even stitchwork of faces, the exhibit may take people by surprise, curator Catherine Johnson-Roehr said.

“It’s not something you’d really expect out of a Kinsey gallery,” she said. “It’s not as explicitly sexual, but it still has an important message to be shared.”

Milius said the works have a way of getting the viewer to connect with the subject, wherein more overt sexual depictions may be intimidating.

“The portraits are intriguing in a different way,” he said. “It has to do more with the identity of a person rather than just their likeness.”

With more portraits than wall space, the curators said they made sure to choose the good, the bad and the ugly.

“We don’t focus on young, beautiful people,” Johnson-Roehr said. “We try to get one of everything.”

The show features photos of an old woman in a belly-dancing costume, a nude breast cancer survivor and a cervical cancer patient in a doctor’s office with her feet in examining table stirrups.

“Showing your struggles through portraiture, whether nude or not, can be so empowering,” Johnson-Rohr said. “This is how these people get over their fears and insecurities.”

But the hallway has a contradicting theme.

That is where “Casual Encounters” is displayed, and Milius said he tried to make it especially non-personal. 

“Sex is a personal matter at first glance,” Milius said. “But anonymity is as huge an aspect as any. I think most people have the fantasy of having sex with someone they don’t know, at least at some point in their lives.”

From snapshots of footprints and claw marks in freshly-sexed sand to sketches of salesmen being fellated, the downstairs corridor focuses on just that: stranger sex.

“Alleyways, bathrooms, the beach — they’re all places people do it quick and dirty,” Milius said. “I tried to capture the rushed, impersonal nature of it.”

Follow reporter Ashley Jenkins on Twitter @ashmorganj.