PAST Exhibitions & EVENTS
Portraits: New Work by Joe Sinness
Opening Reception:
Saturday, February 10, 6-9pm
Show Runs:
February 10 – February 25
Joe Sinness will present eight new colored pencil portraits of softball players in the Twin Cities Goodtime Softball League (TCGSL). The Twin Cities Goodtime Softball League (TCGSL) was founded in 1979 after a group of gay players challenged the Minneapolis Police in a softball game (and won). The Twin Cities Goodtime Softball League now has 36 teams and approximately 600 players for its summer and fall leagues. 2018 marks the 40th season of play in Minnesota.
Sinness’ portraits seek to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the LGBTQIA players in the league. And to create awareness of a league that celebrates community, a place where individuals not only play softball but also become like family.
Sexual desire and cinematic performance is prevalent throughout Sinness’s work. These concepts are filtered through the genres of still-life and portraiture, capturing the beauty of communities traditionally viewed as aberrant. Juxtaposing portraits, still-lifes, theatrical sculptures, and cinematic panoramas, Sinness’s works display the performance of sexual desire. Sinness visualizes desire and pursues a vision of utopic queer spaces and characters, portraying his subjects as tender and worthy of desire.
Sinness received his BA from St. John’s University and an MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He is a recipient of the 2013 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, 2013/14 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Visual Artists, and 2015 Fire Island Artist Residency. He has exhibited throughout the United States, recent solo exhibitions include Joe Sinness: the Flowers at the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2017 and Fey: Drawings by Joe Sinness at the Law Warschaw Gallery at Macalester College in 2015.
Joe Sinness is a fiscal year 2017 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
For more information on TCGSL or to get involved visit http://www.tcgsl.org
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