Muse | James Kinser & Niki Grangruth
September 25 - December 29, 2024
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.
november 8 | artist reception | 5-7 PM
Remarks at 6pm at Salina Art Center, 242 S Santa Fe
James Kinser
James Kinser is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. His work explores idiosyncratic expressions of gender, identity, and memory through the use of performance, costume design, and assemblage. Previously, his work has addressed the relationship between the body, spirituality, and sexuality, all themes which continue to be incorporated within his work.
He received an MA in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College Chicago and a BA from Bethany College, Lindsborg, KS.
Niki Grangruth
Niki Grangruth is a visual artist working in Minneapolis, MN (formerly Chicago, IL). Her work explores issues of gender identity, socially-constructed beauty ideals, archetype, iconography, the body, memory and contemporary motherhood.
Her work has been exhibited nationally at museums and galleries such as the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Indianapolis Art Center, the Kinsey Institute Gallery and the Zhou B. Art Center. Grangruth received her B.A. in Studio Art and English from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, MN (2006) and her M.F.A. in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2009).
Girl with a Pearl Earring (after Vermeer) | 2009 | 20x25”