Banner artwork: Joseph Sinness, Lot of You Left In Me,
colored pencil on paper, 22" x 28", 2008.
(Image cropped and reproduced for access+ENGAGE with permission of the artist)
About his work, Sinness writes: "As portrait artist and symbolist, I adopt images as identity, coding my experience through use of camouflage, ornamented fragments, chimerical bouquets of animalia, rabbits, and melancholic kitsch objects. I create raw and depthless spaces in which to assemble a hybridized disorder – these undefined spaces become open for the possibility of additional symbolism or text, as in an illustrated book. The lack of environmental context also serves to heighten the levels of the trapped subjects’ emotion and presence within these ‘snow globe’ spaces. 
My subjects dissolve landscapes, repossess ferity, and emerge as if apparitions of saints or the debris of dreams; yet they are still encapsulated within the frame, acting as both souvenirs of experience and as emblems for unconfined possibility. My ongoing visual narrative is an abstracted examination of queer domesticity – I invite the viewer to question the personae behind my Aesopian-fabled creatures and their relation to the feral gardens and other queer spaces. I find the dichotomy of the beautiful/grotesque particularly appealing, as viewers may be drawn to or repulsed by my imagery. I hope that my use of both the happy and the sad begs my audience to identify the source of their repulsion.
Repurposed Dolly Parton song titles have become titles for my recent body of work. I pay homage to the country music diva because she projects a saintly presence through her cartoonish, bejeweled exterior. Parton’s titles are fluid and open-ended; they are the final adornment of my work, serving as a vague assertion of each drawn character’s identity."
About the artist: Joseph Sinness lives and works in Minneapolis. He earned his BA from St. John’s University and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. While Joe spends much of his time working in his home studio, he has also instructed classes at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University and MCAD, and is currently a Concept Illustrator. Joe has most recently been part of exhibitions at Soo Visual Arts Center and Thomas Barry Fine Arts in Minneapolis.
See the artist's work in person:
Sinness is one of the artists whose work is featured in the new exhibition at Thomas Barry Fine Arts, LandEscape, which will be on view through April 11. You can catch another exhibition of work by this artist in a few months, at an upcoming show curated by Emma Berg, scheduled for October 2009 at Fox Tax Gallery.
Inquiries about specific pieces may be directed to the artist. You can see many more examples of new work by Joe Sinness online, on his mnartists.org portfolio.
