MUSE: Niki Grangruth and James Kinser | January 16 - February 19, 2022
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 16, 3-6 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 29th, 2-3 PM, In-person and on Zoom
A Bar at the Folies--Bergère (after Manet), 2015, laminated inkjet print, 22 x 40 inches
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to announce the upcoming opening of Muse, an exhibition of photography and costumes by Niki Grangruth and James Kinser in the Freeark Gallery.
Muse, a collaborative body of work by visual artist Niki Grangruth and multimedia artist James Kinser, explores non-conforming gender identity by reimagining and reinterpreting well-known paintings of female subjects from art history. Through the use of a male subject, gaze, and hand-made costumes, each photograph questions common gender-specific beauty ideals, disrupts the pervasive construct of binary gender identity, and explores gender as a non-linear and ever-changing performative act. These challenges to socially constructed gender norms are juxtaposed with overt references to art history, which grounds the work in the familiar and accessible.
- Niki Grangruth and James Kinser
Costume created for A Bar at the Folies--Bergère (after Manet), 2007/2013
Niki Grangruth and James Kinser have been collaborating and exhibiting together for well over a decade. Their exhibitions include the Griffin Museum of Photography (Cambridge, MA), Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), Grunwald Gallery, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), and University of St. Francis Art Gallery (Joliet, IL). They have received alumni residencies from Columbia College Chicago along with top honors from the Kinsey Institute, Cloyde Snook Gallery, and the SohoPhoto Gallery. Their work has been published in Surface Design Journal, Windy City Times, and Chicago Magazine and is included in numerous public and private collections.
Niki Grangruth is an artist primarily working in photography. Grangruth received her B.A. in Studio Art and English from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, MN and her M.F.A. in Photography from Columbia College Chicago.
James Kinser is a Chicago-area multimedia artist. Kinser earned a B.A. in Art Education and Fine Art from Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Art at Columbia College Chicago.
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts