Please join the Riverside Arts Center for the opening reception of “Muse” an exhibition of photography and costumes by Niki Grangruth and James Kinser in the Freeark Gallery.

Opening Reception:
Sunday, January 16, 2022, 3:00 – 6:00 PM

Riverside Arts Center + Freeark Gallery
32 E. Quincy St., Riverside, IL, 60546

Artists Talk:
Saturday, January 29, 2022, 2:00 PM
In-person and via zoom

Viewing hours:
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Proof of Vaccination, masks, and social distancing required. The Riverside Arts Center follows Public Health requirements and guidelines for safety during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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

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.
www.nikigrangruth.art

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.

Muse: 2009 – Present

https://www.riversideartscenter.com/freearksculpturegarden/2022/01/16-niki-grangruth-james-kinser

Official Website

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Tags: Freeark Gallery, James Kinser, Muse, Niki Grangruth, Riverside Arts Center, Riverside Illinois