About the Artist
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan/Springfield, Ohio
Joey Quiñones is a sculptor working primarily with fiber and ceramics. They were selected as an Emerging Artist of 2020 by Ceramics Monthly and a Manifest Gallery Annual Prize Finalist, and they received an Honorable Mention for the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award. Their work has been shown at venues such as the Akron Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. They have a master of fine arts degree in Studio Art from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. They are currently the Artist-in-Residence, Head of Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Website: JoeyQuinones.com
Social Media: @JQuinones_Art
Artist Statement
As an artist, I study decorative domestic items from the era of Enlightenment. I came to Winterthur because of its large collection of ceramics, textiles, paintings, and furniture. The collection of decorative objects tells us as a society who and what we value, and who and what we don’t. When thinking about the United States, we often leave out the history of Spain’s colonization in the New World, and how this presence impacted the African and indigenous populations that all came together in this place. For my project, I created items that would have never existed in the early founding of the U.S. and the Americas (Caribbean included) but more accurately depict the racial and gender dynamics of the period. It influences us still today. With this exhibit, I aim to inspire a dialogue on race, colonization, and the transatlantic slave trade.